National Adult Literacy Database

A Digest

Authors: Audrey M Thomas

This is the digest of a project undertaken for World Literacy of Canada from June 1975 to June 1976 to survey the Canadian literacy scene. Details of the full report of the project are given on the last page.

Added: 1990-01-01

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An Overview of Current Programs and Services, Challenges, Opportunities and Lessons Learned

Series: Canadian Colleges & Institutes

Authors: The Association of Canadian Community Colleges

The Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) Strategic Focus priorities for 2005-2006 included Aboriginal peoples’ access to post-secondary education, and enhancing student success support mechanisms in colleges and institutes which are grounded in Aboriginal values, culture and tradition.

In April and May 2005, ACCC initiated a study on Aboriginal programs and services at colleges and institutes. The study included a literature review, an on-line survey for mainstream ACCC member colleges and institutes, and interviews with representatives from Aboriginal and northern ACCC member colleges and institutes, and the Aboriginal Institutes Consortium, an Associate Member of ACCC.

This report provides an overview of Aboriginal post-secondary education trends in Canada drawn from 2001 Census data and gives an overview of the current barriers to Aboriginal learners’ participation in post-secondary education.

Added: 2006-12-14

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See also:

• Les collèges et instituts canadiens - Répondre aux besoins des apprenants autochtones

Results of the Diagnostic Survey of College and Institute Programs and Services for Immigrants and Conclusions of the College and Institute Immigration Roundtable

Series: Canadian Colleges & Institutes

Authors: The Association of Canadian Community Colleges

The Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) conducted a diagnostic survey of Canadian colleges and institutes programs and services for immigrants, organized a College and Institute Immigration Roundtable, and developed a section of the ACCC website that profiles the types of programs and services immigrants can access through colleges and institutes.

The results of this diagnostic survey provide a snapshot of how colleges and institutes are meeting the needs of immigrants within their communities, including initiatives that facilitate foreign credential recognition. This report also provides an overview of the barriers faced by colleges and institutes in delivering these services, the barriers faced by immigrants trying to access these programs and services, and the lessons learned.

Funders:

Added: 2006-12-14

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See also:

• Les collèges et instituts canadiens - Répondent aux besoins des immigrants

Report

Authors: Irving Rootman, Darryl Quantz

This is a report on a national workshop that took place before the Second National Literacy and Health Conference in Ottawa. Canadian graduate students were invited to apply to attend the workshop and conference and 22 graduate students from across Canada were accepted.

Funders:

• OLES

Added: 2005-09-23

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The Future of Manufacturing in Canada, Perspectives and Recommendations on Workforce Capabilities

Authors: Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters

Canadian manufacturers are restructuring their businesses in response to the challenges they face in global markets. The emergence of new market opportunities and disruptive low-cost competition, the rapid development of new technological capabilities, more demanding customers, a more demanding public, and intense bottom-line pressures are changing the nature of manufacturing worldwide.

This report looks at how the business of manufacturing is being transformed and redefined by changes in the market place and how companies react to them.

Added: 2007-05-16

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See also:

• Manufacturiers et exportateurs du Canada, 20/20, Façonner notre avenir

A Positive Record - An Uncertain Future

Series: Report on Learning in Canada

Authors: Canadian Council on Learning (CCL)

The goal of this document, prepared by the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL), is to examine how Canada’s approach to higher education compares with other leading developed countries and how well its postsecondary education sector can respond to a fast-changing global environment.

The authors note that a shortage of reliable data has made it difficult to report accurately on the state of postsecondary education in Canada. They set out three priorities for this sector: establish a set of clear goals for post-secondary education at the national level; establish indicators to assess achievement; and establish mechanisms at the national level that will accomplish the first two goals while at the same time promoting cohesion and coherence among all facets of postsecondary education.

The authors have also included information about how the United Kingdom, Australia and numerous European countries assess progress towards national goals in postsecondary education.

Added: 2011-03-11

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See also:

• L'enseignement postsecondaire au Canada

Building a brighter financial future

Authors: Task Force on Financial Literacy

This is the final report of the Task Force on Financial Literacy, established in 2009 by the Government of Canada to consult with individuals and organizations across the country on how best to address the gaps in Canadians’ financial knowledge. By the time the consultation period ended, the task force had received more than 300 written submissions, heard from 175 presenters in 14 communities, and attracted 125 contributors to its online forum.

In this document, the authors put forward a proposed national strategy on financial literacy and also provide a set of recommendations on how to achieve it.

The authors note that five priorities form the foundation of the strategy: responsibility for the outcome of the strategy must be shared among all stakeholders; coordination of the various initiatives will require strong leadership; financial literacy requires lifelong learning; resources and innovative approaches will be needed to raise Canadians’ awareness of the importance of adopting good financial behaviours; and accountability will be key to the success of the strategy.

The authors state that financial literacy is an essential life skill for all Canadians and is acquired through lifelong learning. They emphasize the role that the school system can play and recommend that all provincial and territorial governments provide financial literacy professional development opportunities for teachers, with the federal government supporting these efforts by making resources available and accessible for teachers.

Added: 2011-02-25

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See also:

• Les Canadiens et leur argent

Pension Funds and Alternative Strategies for Investing in the Economy

Authors: Canadian Labour and Business Centre

The everyday business of institutional investing often generates “collateral benefits”, or positive effects in the economy that are ancillary to the primary aim of obtaining optimal earnings in a prudent manner.

In the majority of instances, collateral benefits will happen incidentally, meaning that while pension funds and other institutional investors have allocated assets solely in the pursuit of financial returns, they have inadvertently created non-financial ones. These can include growth or jobs, among other social goods. Of course, being incidental doesn’t make benefits any less valuable.

The attraction of targeted investment programs developed in Canada and the United States is that the considerable assets of large institutional investors can be directed strategically so as to bring specific benefits to targeted communities, populations and economic sectors. Thus, the successful targeted program can be seen as both a financial instrument that achieves market-grade returns and as a tool of social and economic development.

Economically targeted investments, or ETIs, are an American invention, and as such is most widely practiced in capital markets in the United States. Nonetheless, Canadian institutional investors, including some of the larger public sector pension funds, are beginning to venture into this field.
As illustrated by the examples profiled in this report, targeted investing may bring optimal returns to institutional investors. At the same time, such investments may, for example, contribute to bridging financing gaps that hinder the growth of small companies in technology sectors (CDP Sofinov; Western Technology Seed Investment Fund) or provide much-needed capital to small businesses, either to finance critical "modernization" activities such as restructuring, consolidation, turnaround, modernization, and so on (Texas Growth Fund) or to rescue viable firms, often with unionized workforces (KPS Special Situations Fund).

Added: 2007-02-23

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See also:

• Du capital qui travaille!

Local Solutions for Financing Investments in a New Economy

Authors: Canadian Labour Market and Productivity Centre

In recent years, issues pertaining to access to capital for productive investment have risen steadily on Canada’s public policy agenda. They have also emerged more prominently as concerns of Canadian business and labour, the two constituencies of the Canadian Labour Market and Productivity Centre (CLMPC). An important new focus for the CLMPC is a current trend towards localized financial innovations in all parts of the country.

In 1997, the government of Canada’s four regional development agencies and the CLMPC worked together to study examples of recently established local investment financing models (LIFMs), in order to learn what micro-level institutions and practices have achieved in attempting to reduce financing barriers for small business in communities and regions across Canada. The results of this collaboration have been recorded in this document, with relevant data and analysis provided by the CLMPC through eighteen case studies of LIFMs in western Canada, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada. This report contains information that would be useful to private and public sector actors and decision-makers in communities and regions eager to obtain information about the practical experiences of their counterparts nation-wide.

Added: 2007-10-25

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See also:

• Capital, communautés et emploi

Transgressing the Formal and Informal Learning Boundaries

Series: The Interplay Between Formal and Informal Learning for Low Skilled Workers

Authors: Paula Angus

In 2003, workers at the Winnipeg plant of Boeing Canada Technology asked for the opportunity to earn their high school diploma through courses offered in the workplace. Subsequently, the Boeing Mature Student Diploma program was developed. In this case study, the author explores the learning journey of workers participating in this program. Data collection was achieved through interviews and journal keeping of three workplace learners, two workplace instructor interviews, and by administering the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory survey to an additional 16 workers, from which a random sampling of responses was used. The author has divided her discussion into the following categories:

(1) Initial Worker Decisions and Motivators
(2) Changes that Occurred During the Program
(3) A Springboard to Recent Informal Learning
(4) Looking Ahead Down the Learning Path.

Funders:

• 
• OLES

Added: 2008-02-14

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