LINC classes: CLB benchmarks, PBLA and end of term
How benchmarks, portfolios and progress reports fit together in a LINC class, and what each term needs to leave behind for certificates and iCARE.
Last updated 15 October 2026
What LINC is
LINC, Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada, is IRCC-funded English language training for eligible newcomers. Its French counterpart is CLIC. Learners are assessed before placement, join a class at a suitable level, and the class tracks their progress against the Canadian Language Benchmarks.
What a LINC program can offer depends on its agreement. IRCC said Stage 2 LINC and CLIC classes, for advanced skills, would be phased out by September 2026, with funding focused on Stage 1. Check which levels your current agreement funds before planning a term.
Canadian Language Benchmarks
The Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) describe English ability on 12 benchmarks in four separate skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The French framework is the NCLC. The benchmarks fall into three stages: 1 to 4, 5 to 8, and 9 to 12. Reading and writing also have literacy levels, from Foundation L to 4L, for learners still building literacy.
A learner can be at a different level in each skill, so a single overall level isn’t enough. Keep the four results separately, with the date, who assessed them and what kind of result each one is.
That last point matters. A placement result from an assessment centre is not the same as a completed benchmark awarded at the end of a course. Keep them apart in your records, because reporting treats them differently.
Portfolio-Based Language Assessment
Portfolio-Based Language Assessment (PBLA) is how LINC classes gather evidence of progress. Through the term, each learner builds a portfolio of artefacts: completed tasks, each linked to a skill and to the CLB level it addressed, with the instructor’s judgement of the outcome.
CCLB’s guidance asks for a balance of skill-using tasks, the everyday classroom tasks where learners practise, and assessment tasks. Skill-building activities don’t go in the portfolio. Before a benchmark can be reported, aim for about 8 to 10 artefacts in a skill area.
Artefact counts inform the instructor’s decision; they don’t make it. Neither attendance nor the number of artefacts awards a benchmark on its own.
Progress reports and conferences
At each reporting point the instructor reviews the portfolio and meets the learner to talk through progress and goals. Where there is enough evidence in at least one skill, the learner gets a Learner Progress Report for that course, even if the benchmark hasn’t changed.
For each skill the report gives one of three things:
- a completed benchmark, which can be the same level as before;
- IE, insufficient evidence, when there isn’t enough evidence to award a level or the learner hasn’t yet shown it;
- NA, not assessed.
End-of-term steps
End of term goes smoothly when the evidence is already in place. A workable order:
- Check each learner’s portfolio by skill, and note where the evidence is thin.
- Draft progress reports from the portfolio, with strengths and next steps.
- Hold the progress conferences.
- Have the instructor approve the reports, then add the completed levels to each learner’s CLB history.
- Issue certificates to the learners who earned them, with the agency’s signature and issue date.
- Record each learner’s exit or move to the next class, and confirm the term’s attendance is complete.
Certificates and report cards
A LINC certificate is evidence of a learner’s language achievement, so treat it as a record, not just a printout. Keep who approved each one, the levels it shows, when it was issued, and any reissue or correction. Some programs also give learners a report card with attendance and comments, in the agency’s own format.
What iCARE Language Training needs from the classroom
Language Training has six iCARE bulk-upload templates. Most of what they ask for is created in the classroom, so it’s easiest to capture it there.
- Course setup: one row per course, with its name, language, course type, delivery mode, seats, dates, schedule, supports offered, target groups and the CLB levels taught. A course can span up to 15 months, its levels must sit within one CLB stage, and a hybrid course needs at least one in-person and one remote day.
- Client enrolment: one row per learner per course, with the first class date.
- Client attendance: one row per learner per class day, Present or Absent. It isn’t collected for self-directed courses or on closure days.
- Client edit: corrections to an enrolment, including updated CLB levels and certificates.
- Client exit: the exit date, whether learning objectives were met (Yes, No or Not assessed), completed CLB levels, support services received and, for an early exit without objectives met, one of iCARE’s exit reasons.
- Course close-out: the course name only, when the course ends.
Rules that catch classes out
A few rules link the classroom record to the iCARE row. Completed levels on exit apply only to a course that leads to CLB progression, where the objectives were met. “Insufficient evidence” is accepted only for a learner with no earlier Language Training CLB result. A certificate needs its listening and speaking levels.
Each of these is easier to get right when the instructor approves the progress report than when someone fills the template weeks later.
Where Cairn fits
For LINC, Cairn handles courses, enrolment, attendance, benchmarks and portfolio tasks, certificates and report cards, and fills the six iCARE Language Training templates from them. See LINC in Cairn and language training.
Want to see a term end to end? Book a demo.