CCL Home > Newsroom > Speeches
I welcome this opportunity to offer the Canadian Council on Learning’s perspective on ways to improve Canada’s competitiveness.
Our position is straightforward. Few things matter more to Canada’s long-term prospects than strengthening Canada’s human resources. Because, in today’s globally competitive economy, a skilled and knowledgeable population is the key to economic success and social progress. The countries that excel are those whose people are capable of adapting and learning throughout their lives.
The Canadian Council on Learning strives to be a catalyst for lifelong learning in Canada. We have rolled out a variety of new vehicles to deliver vital information about learning to educators, governments, employers, employees, labour unions and the public.
Our Composite Learning Index, for example, is an innovative tool to measure Canada’s performance across the full spectrum of learning – in school, the home, the workplace and the community. The Index reinforces that, today, learning does not begin and end in the classroom.
Last month we released the first Canada-wide study of post-secondary education, identifying the importance of national objectives for this crucial sector.
And, on Friday, we will release our first-ever report on the State of Learning in Canada, which examines our progress in learning from early childhood through to the senior years, with strong emphasis on literacy.
Today I would like to tell you about some of our findings with respect to learning by adults, inside and outside of the workplace.
And, regrettably, the news is not all good.
Business support for adult education and training is weaker in Canada than in other OECD countries. This applies both to expenditures per employee on training and share of payroll.
In the U.S., about 45% of adults participated in job-related education and training during 2003, compared to less than 30% of Canadians in 2002.
In Canada, males, people in white-collar jobs and those already holding post-secondary credentials received the lion’s share of training dollars. We also found that workplace-based training is far more readily available at larger firms. However, small- and medium-sized businesses now make up most of the Canadian economy.
One indication of the shortfall: according to Statistics Canada’s Adult Education and Training Survey, 1.5 million Canadians report unmet needs for job-related education and training.
Perhaps the greatest cause for concern is that more than four in 10 Canadians aged 16 to 65—as many as 9 million people—do not have the level of literacy deemed by the OECD to be necessary to cope adequately in today’s economy. Without improvements in literacy, it is difficult for these individuals to upgrade their skills, let alone pursue post-secondary studies that are becoming the minimum standard for so many new jobs.
And research shows that investments in literacy are three times more important than investment in physical capital in increasing productivity over the long term. Even small changes in the literacy skills of a population can have a profound effect on a national economy. A 1% rise in literacy levels can result in a 1.5%increase in GDP per capita, and a 2.5% improvement in labour productivity. Increased labour productivity was the most important driver of economic growth among most industrialized countries over the past decade.
When you compare Canada’s response to these findings with our global competitors, there is even more cause for concern. The U.K., Sweden, Ireland, Singapore and most other industrialized countries have increased their investment in adult skills, including measures to enhance literacy and numeracy.
Norway, for instance, instituted an innovative apprenticeship scheme that has improved the supply of trained workers, while dramatically cutting the high-school dropout rate.
Under the program, students can participate in two-year apprenticeships after just two years of high school, and the government subsidizes their wages. The concept of apprenticeship was also extended to white-collar professions and service industries. Just three years after the reforms were put in place, 97% of former dropouts were either back in school, in the labour force, or engaged in some sort of training program.
In the United Kingdom, the Adult Learning Inspectorate monitors and reports on the quality of education and training that is offered in the private sector, NGOs, public sector institutions and training agencies. It also offers employers specific recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness of their approach to training.
Canada has nothing comparable.
So where does the formal education system—and, more specifically, the post-secondary sector—fit in this picture? Adult education has not traditionally been a central role of post-secondary institutions, with the exception perhaps of vocational institutions. But, post-secondary education today is not just about young people or simply about people who attend university. With up to 70% of new jobs requiring post-secondary qualifications—and millions of Canadians requiring retraining and skills upgrading—colleges and universities could and should play a much greater role in adult learning. Effective partnerships to increase workplace training are needed, as is the increased participation of post-secondary institutions in the delivery of adult education.
This is precisely what most other major developed countries are already doing.
For example, the British have introduced “Foundation Degrees” that offer a vocational route into higher education. The French recognize and validate an individual’s life experience and prior learning when earning a degree. And the German federal and state governments have adopted a joint Strategy for Lifelong Learning to guide their collaborative efforts in adult education and training.
One of the defining features of these efforts is that post-secondary institutions play a prominent role in adult learning. Another key characteristic is that these countries engage a cross-section of players across the entire socio-economic spectrum to address their learning challenges. They understand that every sector needs to bring its strengths to the table to build a learning society.
Canada needs to increase the skills and knowledge of Canadians through networks that extend beyond researchers and academics. All sectors must work together to develop joint solutions to Canada’s human resource challenges.
So, we welcome the approach laid out in Advantage Canada, which makes much the same case. We also endorse the federal government’s focus on accountability to determine whether we are achieving our objectives. For example, we need to understand whether the $29 billion dollars spent annually on post-secondary education produce the economic and social results that Canadians expect.
We believe the return on Canadians’ investment in post-secondary education could be increased substantially if the many partners in education work together to advance common goals for higher learning in Canada.
Specific to workplace training, we think it is essential to identify and prioritize ways to address the needs of adult learners. We recommend a coherent and coordinated national approach to accreditation, credit transfer, credential recognition and prior learning assessment. And we urge attention be focussed on participation and completion rates and patterns for under-represented groups. In order to meet labour-market needs, we need to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to develop to his or her full potential.
The Advantage Canada document provides a useful starting point for these activities and the Canadian Council of Learning is willing to do its part by gathering the data and generating the knowledge necessary to ensure our country is heading in the right direction. CCL’s knowledge centres for work and learning, adult learning and Aboriginal learning are collaborating with experts from across Canada in the areas of labour, business, research, government and education to address many of the issues I have talked about today.
Thank you.
Top