The release of the Canadian Adult Education Credential (CAEC) in the spring of 2024 was a breakthrough for Canadian adults who want a secondary equivalency credential for work, personal goals and further learning. Provinces and territories previously relied on the US-based General Educational Development test (GED®) to grant a high school equivalency certificate.
The new CAEC is substantially different from the GED® as a result of three major changes:
Digital changes as a result of a sophisticated online testing platform (i.e. Vretta), the variety of test questions and digital sources to read and interpret
Content changes in reading, writing, science and social studies require background knowledge that is more general and not explicitly tied to provincial and territorial curricula.
The use of a cognitive complexity framework that emphasizes the application of conceptual knowledge and skills more than the recall and reproduction of facts.
"Developed to replace the discontinued GED®, the Canadian Adult Education Credential (CAEC) is a new, high-quality, Canadian-made, adult education certificate for adults who have not attained a high-school diploma."
The Pan-Canadian, Canadian Adult Education Credential (CAEC), Replaces the GED®
Learn more about each type of change to gain important insights about the ways the new features shape test-items (i.e. sources to view, read and interpret, test questions and various answer formats).