LiteracyExpress Canadian Literacy and Learning Network
State of the Field
Winter 2013
where to go From here
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LiteracyExpress Winter 2013
In this issue: CLLN News 4
New Projects
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survey of L/es workforce
FOCUs: state of the Field: Next steps 4 ways of Learning Formal, Non-Formal, Informal A Curriculum wheel for Lifelong Learning Pathways to education Adult Learning in Nunavut Building Bridges: Promoting College and Career Readiness Learning Communities of all Kinds
4 Corporate Canada Responds to the skills crisis eCe: A High-Priority Investment Canada’s Labour Market Mismatch Perrin Beatty on the skills Crisis
4 success story: enhancing essential skills at Fundy Pros
this newsletter is published by
NewS CLLN New Projects & Partners at CLLN The new year has landed with a flurry of activities at CLLN. Planning over the last few months is coming to fruition with these three new projects and partnerships:
Incorporating Digital Technology CLLN is conducting an environmental scan to investigate how digital technology is being used in adult L/ES programs and networks across Canada. We believe it will help the field better understand and incorporate digital technology to best meet the needs of Canadian adult learners. rough this scan, we hope to discover what tools are being used and how, along with any barriers to the full integration of digital technology in institutions, agencies and networks. We will use these findings to make recommendations for further research and action to support the Literacy and Essential Skills workforce. And to complement this information CLLN and Canadian Apprenticeship Forum (CAF) have a joint project to look at what digital technology is being used in the workplace.
Employers’ Perceptions and Attitudes on the Impacts of Technology on Apprentices and Journeypersons in the Workplace We are exploring employer attitudes, in various trades, toward the impact of technology on skills requirements in the workplace. We want to know: What trades are being impacted the most? What are the emerging skills requirements and how will this impact training? Workplace Learners in Canada CLLN is undertaking a joint project with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) to identify current knowledge around workplace learner needs and workplace learning through an environmental snapshot. It will capture information about current workplace programming in unionized and non-unionized environments, and success indicators from workplace learners’ perspectives.
U p d at eCLLN Labour
market Study
Now it’s your turn! Canadian Literacy and Learning Network 342A Elgin Street Ottawa, ON K2P 1M6 CLLN is funded by the Government of Canada's Office of Literacy and Essential Skills
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We know quite a bit about the people who access Literacy and Essential Skills programs in Canada, and the tools used to teach these skills. But we don’t know enough about the practitioners who work across the country helping people to upskill. is gap in our knowledge has been revealed in recent studies. Working to address the gap, CLLN, with funding from OLES, is coordinating a large-scale, confidential survey of L/ES practitioners. is is a survey by and for L/ES practitioners; to yield the best possible data, we need you to participate. is is an opportunity to have L/ES work valued, documented and recognized. It is the
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first step in examining the richness of our field and it will provide tangible data to policy makers and stakeholders. Once the analysis is completed, we will have the first comprehensive picture of the L/ES workforce in Canada–demographics of practitioners working in the L/ES field, information about what kinds of work they do, where they do it and how they do it–-and a better understanding of the human resources issues affecting practitioners as well as program providers. Watch for the online survey link coming to your inbox in March, or monitor the Literacy Professionals section of literacy.ca.
LiteracyExpress Winter 2013
State of the Field N e x treport StepS Canadian Literacy and Learning Network (CLLN) released the State of the Literacy and Essential Skills Field to our national network of partners last November. e report* provides an environmental scan showing the state of field across the country. As the first report of its kind, it provides much-needed baseline information from which future scans and new targeted research projects can be developed. Adult Literacy and Essential Skills (L/ES) development and training are relevant to a range of policy areas that cross political boundaries. e State of the Literacy and Essential Skills Field can help inform government, labour, business, social service agencies, partners and stakeholders about the impact of Literacy and Essential Skills on the Canadian economy and the well-being of Canadians.
With many governments facing budget deficits, reducing expenditures is a priority. Recent research indicates that an increase in Literacy and Essential Skills could provide significant reductions in Canadians’ reliance on income support from Employment Insurance as well as workers compensation and social assistance programs, freeing up significant fiscal resources for governments. Many of the articles in this edition of Literacy Express touch on these issues. Policy makers, business leaders and educators increasingly understand that these are critical challenges for Canada. Building solutions will require effective collaboration and significant investments. Literacy and Essential Skills are part of the “right to learn” required for people to function effectively at work, at home and in their communities. e State of the Field shows how Literacy and Essential Skills have a powerful effect on the economic and social lives of Canadians. Our challenge now is to take this knowledge and use it to keep the conversation going, build stronger alliances with the stakeholders outside the immediate L/ES field, and make real progress on building a culture of learning in Canada.
e report draws out a number of nation-wide issues and trends: e looming labour shortage linked to Canada’s aging population, combined with ongoing shifts in the labour market and a widening skills gap, make human resources issues the greatest economic concern of Canadian business. Literacy and Essential Skills improvements are part of the solution. e under-representation of First Nations, Métis, Inuit, new immigrants and persons with disabilities in the labour market is both a challenge for Canada and a potential solution for labour shortages—if effective solutions for removing barriers and encouraging upskilling can be developed. e Literacy and Essential Skills level of Canadian youth remains an area of concern across Canada. Even though fewer youth are dropping out of school, some students who graduate with a Grade 12 diploma don’t have adequate skills. With low-skill jobs disappearing, Canada must improve the L/ES level of high school graduates and develop more effective programs for the 10% who still don’t graduate and the 43% who have skills at IALS levels 1 and 2.
The State of the
Field report is…
A national pictur e of the L/ES field
Baseline inform ation to support future re search An L/ES lens on key issues challenging Can ada’s economy and so cial fabric An educational resource for outreach and pa rtnership building
read the report online here download the pdf here
*Note: e State of the Literacy and Essential Skills Field is sometimes shortened to “the State of the Field” or simply “the report” in this issue of Literacy Express, for length and readability.
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LiteracyExpress Winter 2013
w a y s FieLd of Learning State oF the For most people, the word “learning” and the word “schooling” are fairly synonymous. When we hear the word “learning” many of us are likely to imagine a classroom with desks and chairs and a teacher at the front of the room. But traditional school-based classroom learning has not been a successful experience for everyone. As the State of the Literacy and Essential Skills Field report clearly reveals, many Canadians do not acquire the skills they need to be successful in life from the school environment. Too many young people still do not graduate from high school, and a disturbing number graduate with insufficient literacy skills. In addition, most of the population groups under-represented in the labour force (First Nations, Métis, Inuit, newcomers and people with disabilities) have a comparatively high likelihood of negative school experiences. For groups identified in the State of the Field as having high levels of need for L/ES upgrading, structured classroom
learning may seem intimidating. Normally, young people gain skills at high school. However, youth who didn’t do well in formal education may have substantial gaps in learning but think that they have better skills than they actually have. ey may need different types of programs to attract them back to a learning environment. We recognize that some immigrant and refugee groups require different approaches for learning to be effective. With older workers, it is always important to avoid the perception that they are being “sent back to school” because their skills are inadequate. e key to success for many adult learners is simply wanting to learn and finding a way to make it happen–and there are many different ways of learning. is section of Literacy Express takes a look at different ways of learning and some innovative programs that put people on the path to realizing their personal learning goals.
Formal, Non-formal and Informal Learning Applications in the Canadian L/ES and Language Learning Context e notion of different types of learning that could be categorized as formal, non-formal and informal began to take hold in 1996 when the OECD education ministers agreed to develop strategies for “lifelong learning for all”. Formal learning is the most studied and best understood of the three, and it may be over-valued as a result. Developing a better understanding of non-formal and informal learning is essential for recognizing, and in some cases certifying, learning that takes place outside of a formal setting.
Formal learning This type of learning is intentional, organized and structured. Formal learning opportunities are usually arranged by institutions. Often this type of learning is guided by a curriculum or other type of formal program.
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“e recognition of non-formal and informal learning is an important means for making the ‘lifelong learning for all’ agenda a reality and, subsequently, for reshaping learning to better match the needs of the 21st century knowledge economies and open societies. “ (OECD, https://www.oecd.org/edu/highereducationandadultlearning /recognitionofnon-formalandinformallearning-home.htm , retrieved January 29, 2013)
Non-formal learning This type of learning may or may not be intentional or arranged by an institution, but it is usually organized in some way, even if it is loosely organized. There are no formal credits granted in non-formal learning situations.
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Informal learning This type of learning is never organized. Rather than being guided by a rigid curriculum, it is often thought of as experiential and spontaneous.
LiteracyExpress Winter 2013
e brief definitions (see box previous page) are provided by Dr. Sarah Eaton in her research report, Formal, non-formal and informal learning: e case of LES and language learning in Canada. Dr. Eaton’s report investigates the links among these types of learning. In the Canadian context, these notions of learning are linked to literacy and essential skills (including HRSDC’s L/ES tools), as well as the learning of second and other languages in Canada. e paper highlights certain Canadian examples for understanding literacy and language learning, and seeks to start cross-disciplinary conversations between L/ES professionals and those working with second or other language learning. Particularly intriguing are the potential applications of the assetbased Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to language learning in Canada. CEFR has several elements in common with HRSDC’s system for viewing Literacy and Essential Skills, both proposing a way of understanding and valuing skills and competencies that transcends borders. Both systems recognize and value learning of all kinds, reinforcing and inspiring lifelong learning. Dr. Eaton’s report is recommended reading for all L/ES professionals.
Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph. D., Founder and Principal Advisor, Eaton International Consulting Copies of the report may be accessed through the National Adult Literacy Database: Formal, non-formal and informal learning: e case of LES and language learning in Canada http://library.nald.ca/research/item/8549 http://www.nald.ca/library/research/eaton/eaton.pdf
WEBINARS Feb. 20, 2013 – 2pm to 3pm esT Measuring Impact: Telling Your story to social Investors An overview of measurement methods and available tools, helping Literacy and Essential Skills organizations to maximize communications to stakeholders and funders. Presented by Annette Hegel, Manager of Communications, CLLN click here to register
March 13, 2013 – 2pm to 3pm esT Labour Market study of the L/es workforce everything you ever wanted to know about the upcoming survey Literacy and Essential Skills practitioners work across Canada in various settings to help Canadians achieve better L/ES results. While more is known about who accesses L/ES programs and what tools are used to increase L/ES skills, recent studies have shown that there is a gap in our knowledge about who works in the L/ES field.. Presented by Anne Ramsay, LMS project manager, CLLN click here to register
www.literacy.ca
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A Curriculum Wheel for Lifelong Learning Scotland’s curriculum framework for adult learning “e Wheel” is a tool that was developed to illustrate Scotland’s curriculum framework for adult learning. A wheel was chosen to represent the curriculum because its developers wanted the curriculum to revolve around the learner. Because it represents the curriculum as concentric circles, the wheel acts as a visual reminder to both tutors and learners about learning opportunities, and the principles that should inform adult learning. By placing the learner at the centre and the higher-order goals in a ring around the outside, the wheel presents a holistic vision of individuals’ lifelong path of learning. As a tool, the wheel can be used to help learners work out their own individual learning plan and goals, with the assistance of their tutor.
problem that needs solving, but as a person becoming empowered to improve their life. e curriculum wheel resonates with one of the key findings of the State of the Literacy and Essential Skills Field report: the need for Canada to develop a culture of learning and for Canadians to embrace lifelong learning. Learning doesn’t end with a diploma or degree. Adults need to continue learning, whatever their skill level. We need to promote lifelong learning and provide opportunities for people to upskill. is is particularly important when people are prevented from reaching their goals because of low literacy levels. e Wheel is available as on online tool at Adult Literacies Online, Scotland’s national databank of resources supporting adult literacy and numeracy.
While problem solving is an element within the wheel, it isn’t the frame: the focus is not on solving a specific problem, such as needing a higher literacy level or better computer skills. Nor is the path a linear one: for example, job loss training employment. e learner is not framed as a person with a
Share your ideas with the network! Let us know about resources, new research or the work you are doing. Contact Teresa LeGrand at tlegrand@literacy.ca to get your info out nation-wide in LiteracyExpress or on www.literacy ca.
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http://wheel.aloscotland.com
CLLN Membership If you aren’t already a member, or haven’t renewed your membership, please click here for the membership form. If you have any questions, visit our website or call the office at 613-563-2464 or email us at clln@literacy.ca.
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LiteracyExpress Winter 2013
Pathways to Education Working to Help Make Canada a Graduation Nation 70%, and increasing the rate at which youth from these neighbourhoods go on to college or university by up to 300%. Working alongside the school system, Pathways provides afterschool tutoring, mentoring and financial assistance. Each student benefits from a personal relationship with a support worker who motivates and guides students and their families, brings insight that can’t be found on report cards, and holds students accountable to the contract they sign in order to participate in the program.
Pathways to Education tackles one of Canada’s most significant socio-economic challenges head-on–the high school dropout rate in Canada’s most vulnerable communities. e State of the Field provides national and provincial/territorial statistics on dropouts–which are concerning in themselves–but these figures don’t reveal the situation at the community level. In some neighbourhoods, more than half the students don’t graduate from high school, taking a dramatic toll on our communities, our health and justice systems, and our economy. Founded in 2001, Pathways now operates in 12 communities across Canada with programs in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Manitoba By 2016, Pathways will serve over 10,000 students and alumni each year e Pathways program generates a $24 social return for every $1 invested Pathways’ mission is focused on helping youth in low-income communities graduate from high school and successfully transition into post-secondary education. Pathways addresses systemic barriers to education by providing leadership, expertise and a community-based program proven to lower dropout rates.
Pathways’ innovative, community-based model builds partnerships with governments, social welfare agencies, and hundreds of diverse volunteers who share their talent and wisdom. Embedded within trusted local organizations, and dedicated to equality, inclusion and accessibility, the program is available to all students of high school age within the communities Pathways serves. Pathways is helping to break the cycle of poverty and enable strategic, long-term social change. To learn more about Pathways to Education, including how communities are selected, visit their website at pathwaystoeducation.ca.
e results of this unique program have been groundbreaking, reducing high school dropout rates by as much as
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Adult Learning in Nunavut Investing to meet unique challenges A significant measure of the future success of Nunavut will be the ability of Nunavummiut—the people of Nunavut—to take an active role in the economic opportunities that become available in the territory. e Government of Nunavut envisions future success from a social and economic perspective, understanding that respect for the values, traditions and abilities of Nunavummiut must be the foundation of development.
Vision “We envision a territory where learning and training build Nunavut-based capacity, providing Nunavummiut with opportunities to effectively engage in the cultural, social and economic development of our territory. Nunavut will become a place in which our common goals are achieved through collaboration, cooperation and investment in our human resources.” —Nunavut Adult Learning Strategy
e Nunavut Adult Learning Strategy sets a course for meeting the adult learning challenges facing the territory. With almost three-quarters of the working-age population struggling with literacy issues, the learning needs and the social costs are great. Actions taken to combat poverty and social exclusion can only have lasting effects if the basic skills of the population can be improved. Opportunities are anticipated in the fields of government, construction, mining, fishing, tourism and traditional activities. But it will be a significant undertaking to provide the training, education and skills that individuals will need to engage in their communities and obtain employment. e goal is not only to upskill individuals to qualify for positions that have been typically filled by non-residents, but to build the capacity of Nunavummiut to become active participants in determining their future.
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e strategy is the first step toward a new plan for the delivery of adult education and training in Nunavut. Its goals and objectives seek to address four core issues affecting Nunavummiut adults’ learning: 1. e learning needs are wide and varied, ranging from literacy and adult basic education to professional programming, and there are not enough resources to address all needs. With building capacity as a primary goal, a key challenge will be investing in areas that yield the greatest value over the long term. 2. Many people lack basic literacy skills, especially in small communities. A focused effort to raise literacy skills (in English, Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun) and basic education levels among these people can increase the number of candidates for further education and trades training. 3. e systems in place for delivering adult learning and career development services need to be evaluated, with the goal of improving coordination to improve the effective delivery of adult education programs and services. 4. All programs and services must be developed in a culturally appropriate manner, clearly reflecting the needs of Inuit. e lack of programming in Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun, and programming that reflects community needs and values, must be addressed. It is important to value teaching and learning at all levels and from all sources. Nunavut is making a commitment and significant financial investment to address the territory’s adult learning issues. Making progress will require a collaborative effort, over the long term, beginning with the strategy’s implementation plan. It is interesting to see how Nunavut’s strategy aligns with Scotland’s curriculum wheel: both place the learner at the centre and identify the promotion of self-determination and lifelong learning as framing values.
www.tunngavik.com/documents/publications/2008-08-11Nunavut-Adult-Learning-Strategy-English.pdf
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LiteracyExpress Winter 2013
Building Brigdes: Promoting College and Career Readiness e United States faces a skills gap similar to Canada’s (see Perrin Beatty on Canada’s Skills Crisis, page 11). e gap that exists between the skills and knowledge of the current and projected workforce, and the demands of jobs that are expected to grow the most rapidly over the next decade, is seen as a threat to America’s competitive advantage in the global economy. e U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education held a virtual symposium for community colleges in 2012. Several briefs were produced to guide discussion, including Promoting College and Career Readiness: Bridge Programs for Low-Skill Adults. In the U.S., bridge programs are a common intervention intended to improve success rates for adults entering post-secondary programs. e brief begins from the premise that community colleges are ideally positioned to help close the skills gap and have the potential “to succeed as engines of workforce development and economic prosperity”—if some problems can be addressed. e brief focuses on low rates of student persistence and completion, and the programs designed to alleviate this problem.
Bridge programs support the transition from adult education to the next step on an occupational pathway. ey aim to increase the rates at which low-skill adults move into collegelevel programs, persist in these programs, and obtain credentials that allow them to move jobs with family-sustaining wages and career advancement. In the U.S. these programs have developed mainly as part of local institutional efforts or state-led initiatives. e programs in Washington, Oregon and Illinois are described in overview to provide a picture of the common components of leading bridge models. Improving the data for analyzing student progress and success will help promote continuous improvement and sharing of best practices as bridge programs grow and evolve.
U.S. research on adult literacy skills reports that half of adults aged 18-64 who do not graduate high school have below basic literacy skills; among those with a diploma or GED, just over half are at either below basic or basic. Many of these adults need to improve their basic skills before they can successfully take advantage of training or employment opportunities.
Despite low literacy levels, post-secondary education is a common goal of many adult education students—they have the desire and motivation to learn, but not the skills they need to succeed. Together, many adult education programs and community colleges in the U.S. have responded to this problem by developing career pathways programs and, within these programs, bridge programs.
Promoting College and Career Readiness: Bridge Programs for Low-Skill Adults U.S. Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult Education http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/cclo/brief-1-bridgeprograms.pdf
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Learning Communities of All Kinds Fostering Lifelong Learning
A learning community is commonly defined as a group of people who share common values and beliefs and are actively engaged in learning from each other. From a quick scan of this issue of Literacy Express we can find several examples of learning communities: 4 On the professional level we see government, communities and learning service providers working toward solutions for adult learning in Nunavut; and government education officials, community colleges and adult learning programs building bridge programs in the U.S.
4 e Chamber of Commerce roundtables on the skills crisis may be thought of as a starting point for a national learning community of business interests seeking solutions to human resource issues.
4 On the community level we have the Pathways to Education program, creating learning communities for the benefit of youth in Canada’s most vulnerable neighbourhoods.
4 e workplaceat FundyPros is an example of a positive environment that fosters a continuous learning community
4 e State of the Field report itself is to a degree the product of a learning community: CLLN members, researchers and staff collaborating to build and consolidate knowledge within the L/ES field. We can imagine other related learning communities engaged in formal, non-formal and informal learning—for example, a non-formal, on-reserve community program to share traditional skills and language could foster a strong learning community; an informal adult learners’ study group can become a community of people who help each other through a challenging college program. Learning communities can be defined by common interest or affiliation, institutional or geographic boundaries, or both. Over a lifetime of learning, people may belong to many different learning communities of varying degrees of formality. Anytime that people engage to learn from each other, they are building learning communities and strengthening a culture of lifelong learning.
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Tamarack’s Learning Communities Tamarack is a Canadian institute dedicated to fostering community engagement and collaborative leadership. rough a national website, Tamarack has made a home for a growing learning community of practitioners from different sectors, working together and learning from each other to address complex community issues and create positive change. Tamarack’s community shares responsibility and leadership for building vibrant communities across Canada and beyond. As a collective, Tamarack seeks to advance the field of community engagement and collaborative leadership. Tamarack has established three intentional learning communities, each linked by a dedicated website offering opportunities to learn and connect. TamarackCCI.ca is a network for collaborative leadership professionals VibrantCanada.ca invites engagement, innovation and collaboration aimed at reducing poverty in Canada’s cities SeekingCommunity.ca offers people the opportunity to create a profile, explore questions of community and connect with other Tamarack’s virtual learning communities are working at a national level to build collaborative leadership and strengthen community engagement on the ground at the local level.
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LiteracyExpress Winter 2013
State oF the FieLd
Corporate Canada responds to the Skills Crisis
e Bankers are Talking … about Literacy and Essential Skills Late in 2012, two of Canada’s major banks published articles relating to the Literacy and Essential Skills field. While the topics might not seem to be especially similar at first glance, both relate to themes addressed in CLLN’s State of the Field report, and both reveal the importance of ensuring that there is opportunity for all in order to build a prosperous Canada. TD Economics’ Special Report looks at the benefits of early childhood education. CIBC World Markets’ In Focus explored the issue of “haves” and “have nots” in Canada’s workforce. Where is the alignment? Both support the need to foster a culture of learning in Canada from early childhood through adulthood.
e following articles summarize some of the key points raised in these reports. You can follow the links to the full text if you want to read more. Special Report, TD Economics – November 27, 2012 “Early Childhood Education has Widespread and Long Lasting Benefits” http://www.td.com/document/PDF/economics/special/di11 12_EarlyChildhoodEducation.pdf In Focus – Economics – December 3, 2012 “e Have and Have Nots of Canada’s Labour Market” http://research.cibcwm.com/economic_public/download/if_ 2012-1203.pdf
ECE: A High-Priority Investment TD’s special report on early childhood education (ECE) takes the form of a literature review. While it’s noted that some of the studies reviewed may have shortcomings and there is a potentially large margin of error in quantifying benefits, the report nonetheless concludes that early learning promotes “pervasive widespread benefits”.
e TD special report includes data showing that children who participate in ECE have lower grade retention, require less funding for special education, and are less likely to drop out of school. We also need to know if they are more likely to graduate with a higher L/ES level.
e report finds “compelling evidence” of the benefits of early learning: benefits for the children, as well as positive impacts on the parents and the economy. Ultimately, making investments in early education can help address many of Canada’s challenges—poverty, skills shortages, and improving productivity and innovation are singled out in the highlights.
Despite clear evidence that the benefits of ECE far outweigh the costs, public spending in this area falls short of the investments made by most advanced economies. In fact, Canada’s spending on ECE services as a percentage of GDP ranks us last among 14 countries.
However, the report acknowledges that most governments in Canada are currently in deficit-reduction mode and are not likely to invest in substantial new programs at this time. e recommendation is that governments should consider investing in ECE as a “high priority over the medium term” as finances move back into balance.
Not considered is the question: What are the costs of waiting?
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Canada’s Labour Market Mismatch CIBC World Market’s December issue of In Focus provides a provocative look at current trends in Canada’s labour market. e analysis shows a “growing divide between have and have not occupations.”
e CIBC piece raises an alarm about the prospect or rising longterm unemployment among the “have nots”, but it doesn’t dig deeper to examine the L/ES differences between the people in the have and have not occupations or look at other barriers to mobility between the two categories.
Have and have not occupations correlate to Canada’s skilled labour shortage on one end of the labour spectrum, and a labour surplus at the other. is skilled labour “mismatch” is described as a big–and growing–problem. Big enough to “limit the growth potential of the labour market and the economy as a whole.”
e methodology used in the CIBC report measures wages and unemployment rates. Occupations experiencing both rising wages and falling unemployment are the “have” occupations; those experiencing the inverse, stagnant or falling wages and high and/or rising unemployment, are the “have nots”.
In summary, the occupations showing signs of labour surplus are traditional crafts (e.g. butcher, baker, tailor), clerical and sales jobs, public school teachers, tourism and recreation jobs, personal and food service workers, and labourers in manufacturing. e occupations showing signs of skilled labour shortage are diverse health care roles (both traditional and specialized) and occupations in mining, engineering and science.
Proposing solutions to the skills gap isn’t the purpose of this article. (Immigration and apprenticeship initiatives are mentioned—and found likely too small to do much toward closing the gap.) It is left to others, including those of us in the L/ES field, to work on building the solutions to address the mismatch.
Childhood learning and adult learning are both essential for the well-being of Canadians and a prosperous Canada. Building strong Literacy and Essential Skills creates the foundation for lifelong learning.
Perrin Beatty on Canada’s Skills Crisis e Canadian Chamber of Commerce has been focusing on “Barriers to Canadian Competitiveness” as one of its top policy initiatives. Why? Because the Chamber has identified competitiveness as the over-riding concern of the business community in Canada. e Chamber has a Top 10 list of the barriers to competitiveness, and the issue at the top of the list is “Canada’s human resources challenge”. is challenge was the subject of Perrin Beatty’s address to the 2012 AGM of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce on September 12, 2012. Mr. Beatty, the President and CEO of the Chamber, used terms such as “mismatch”, “crisis” and “deep structural problem” to describe the human resources challenge, and referred to 2012 a “tipping point” for many Canadian businesses.
businesses are acutely aware of the need for skills upgrading and the lack of essential skills among Canadian workers, what Mr. Beatty called the “survival skills” needed to cope in the 21st century workforce. Also mentioned by many roundtable participants was the need to improve Aboriginal education in order to realize the potential of the youngest and fastest-growing segment of Canada’s population. Upskilling and Aboriginal education were joined by educatoremployer connections and immigration policy to become the four priorities emerging from the roundtable exercise.
e evidence is clear: the baby boomers have started to retire, there are not enough workers to replace them, and there is a growing shortage of skilled workers. is trend is predicted to continue over the next 20 years and will impact critical sectors of the Canadian economy.
What the Chamber heard from Canadian businesses aligns quite closely with the findings of the State of the Field, which can be a resource for the Chamber as they move forward with determining a work plan on the skills issue. Mr. Beatty has challenged the chamber network to take action, especially in filling the gaps in the educatoremployer model. Building partnerships to find solutions will be key.
Mr. Beatty titled his talk Canada’s Skills Crisis: What We Heard, and he spent some time reporting on the results of the Chamber’s series of cross-country series of roundtables on the skills issue. Canadian
You can view Mr. Beatty’s entire speech at: www.chamber.ca/images/uploads/Events/AGM/2012/CCCAGM201 2_Beatty.pdf
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LiteracyExpress Winter 2013
FUNdy proS SUCCeSS Story Here are some of the highlights of the school of excellence:
Constructing the Right Solution
e training team avoids using the term “literacy” and distinguishes the on-the-job training from the type of learning done in school (e.g. there is no grading or pass/fail), to avoid possible negative associations the participants may have. Instead, the training is positioned as an exercise to raise the company’s standards, helping it to grow and be sustainable.
e training is mandatory, with each module consisting of six half-day sessions, scheduled as-needed. ese sessions take place during working hours with employees receiving their regular wage, making the 3 Key Ingredients to success: training part of the job, not an add-on.
FundyPros Specialty Construction is the largest specialty construction firm in New Brunswick, with over 250 employees. Founder and president Mario Allain has been the driving force behind the creation of an innovative and comprehensive essential skills training program for his company.
1. Organizational needs assessment 2. Customized training program that meets identified needs 3. Owner that champions continuous learning
FundyPros’ operations span the province, so Mr. Allain began with town hall meetings with his employees, asking them what could be done differently to make the company more productive and sustainable. e feedback showed him that there was a shortage of qualified workers, and that many workers didn’t have enough training or experience, and lacked essential skills. Realizing that on-the-job training was what the company needed, Mr. Allain set out to develop a program that would yield results for his business. Being a builder, Mr. Allain started from the ground up and built his own training facility. With the assistance of a newly hired training instructor and the participation of FundyPros supervisors, a custom program was developed for the company. One of the first steps was using the Organizational Needs Assessment from HRSDC’s Office of Literacy and Essential Skills to identify the company’s strengths and Essential Skills training needs. is helped them to realize that there were problems with the practice of promoting the best tradespeople to supervisory positions: possessing technical skills and talents doesn’t necessarily mean having the skills needed to be a good manager. e FundyPros’ training program is called the “school of excellence”—its focus is enhancing the Essential Skills of the company’s 30 supervisors across the province. With the best interests of his company at heart, and by listening to the workers and seeking out professional assistance and proven tools, Mr. Allain has been able to realize the goal of building the leadership capacity of his supervisors.
e Construction Sector Council’s competency matrix chart is used as a roadmap for the program. e chart helps to identify the Essential Skills the supervisors need, and map them to specific workplace tasks. e participants work with documents that they actually use in the workplace so they can see how the training is relevant to their job.
While the introduction of the school of excellence was threatening to some employees, and not everyone was willing to participate, over time a cultural change has begun to take hold at FundyPros. Mr. Allain has worked to foster a positive learning environment, where developing skills is a worthwhile goal for everyone. e results of the school of excellence have been positive for both participants and the company: Participants’ self-esteem and confidence on the job has increased, creating a positive attitude and atmosphere at work. ere are fewer human resources issues, more respect between workers, more integrity in the company, and fewer workrelated issues on the job. A noteworthy success was the computer use training course. Now that supervisors have a laptop with them on site, communications are considerably improved and software enables efficient, accurate and standardized job estimates and costing.
FundyPros is always trying to evolve, to connect the dots, by integrating Literacy and Essential Skills into a culture of continuous learning.
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