National Adult Literacy Database

The research presented in this paper shows that recent immigrant employees are less likely than the Canadian-born to receive employer sponsored training, even after controlling for several job-related factors known to affect the incidence of training. However, two key factors, language and the match between educational attainment and job skill requirements reduce the negative impact of recent immigrant status on training participation rates. This suggests that efforts to address and overcome language-related barriers to training, and to more accurately assess and locate immigrants within jobs commensurate with their human capital would improve their prospects for on-going skills development. At the policy level, it means greater efforts to improve the labour market integration of immigrants through Prior Learning Assessments and official language training initiatives would likely improve immigrant prospects for employer-sponsored training.