Canadian Council on Learning | Conseil Canadien sur l'Apprentissage

The Labour Movement Addresses Barriers to Access to Lifelong Learning

June 5, 2007 Ottawa—The Canadian Council on Learning, in collaboration with the Work and Learning Knowledge Centre, today released the report Integrating Equity, Addressing Barriers: Innovative Learning Practices by Unions.

The report describes the diverse education- and learning-based initiatives that labour unions across the country have developed to address the systemic and other barriers workers have faced, both in the workplace and in accessing learning opportunities. These barriers include, class, age, gender, sexual orientation, race and cultural background, employment status and educational background.

The report covers a variety of learning initiatives including literacy, workplace skills, apprenticeship, anti-discrimination, and labour education. It also highlights two recurring themes:

• The approach to learning: Union learning practices rely on active learners who share knowledge with their instructor; and
• Time and costs as barriers to access: the research shows that these two factors are major deterrents to better participation in work-related training.

“Ongoing efforts to address barriers faced by workers have provided unions and central labour bodies with a rich experience that is relevant to all workers, unionized or not said Paul Cappon, President and CEO, Canadian Council on Learning. “In a time when we are facing growing skills shortages in a number of regions and sectors, resolving these barriers will become more and more pressing to an economy and society that need to ensure that no one is excluded from participating in workplace training.”

The report, which contains 35 detailed sketches of innovative, union-led learning practices from across the country, was developed by the Labour Education Centre with the Centre for the Study of Education and Work, and commissioned by CCL’s Work and Learning Knowledge Centre, a consortium of more than 150 organizations led by the Canadian Labour Congress and Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters.

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The Canadian Council on Learning is an independent, not-for-profit corporation funded through an agreement with Human Resources and Social Development Canada. Its mandate is to promote and support evidence-based decisions about learning throughout all stages of life, from early childhood through to the senior years.

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