Ramona Jennex, chair of CMEC and Nova Scotia’s minister of education, says learning opportunities don’t begin and end with the formal school day. "Parents and caregivers are ‘teachers of the world’ for children and serve as guides on the learning journey, whether the trip is to the neighbourhood park, the city next door, or a country halfway around the world.”
Establishing a culture of learning in the home encourages an exchange of ideas, enriches family relationships, and bolsters confidence and independent thinking. On January 27 across Canada thousands of families, literacy groups, schools, libraries and community organizations gathered in their communities to celebrate the importance of literacy and learning in honour of Family Literacy Day – Canada’s largest family literacy initiative.
Posted: January 27, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
Having a university degree is no guarantee you will have effective communication skills. A program at the University of Saskatchewan teaches these skills to engineers.
Posted: January 27, 2012 |

Category: Learning
Freedom to Read Week is an annual event that encourages Canadians to think about and reaffirm their commitment to intellectual freedom, which is guaranteed them under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Posted: January 26, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
The Board of Directors and staff of the HR Council for the Nonprofit Sector (HR Council) met recently to continue their discussions concerning the future of the organization in the wake of the federal government’s announcement that the Sector Council Program will no longer be in place after March 2013.
Posted: January 25, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
The Saskatchewan Literacy Network is pleased to announce that the Ministry of Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration has made funding available for workforce learner groups in the province. Workplace, workforce readiness and pre-employment programs are eligible to apply for up to $1,000 to support group activities.
Posted: January 25, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
Among the 10 largest industrial sectors, educational services had the highest ratio of unemployment to vacancies in September, with 10.0 unemployed people per job vacancy. Construction was next, with a ratio of 5.1.
Posted: January 23, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
"We think of a thriving workforce as one in which employees are not just satisfied and productive but also engaged in creating the future — the company's and their own," said Gretchen Spreitzer, professor of management and organizations at the Michigan Ross School of Business. "Thriving employees have a bit of an edge — they are highly energized — but they know how to avoid burnout."
Multilingual parents needn’t worry about confusing their children with multiple languages spoken at home, as new research findings from the University of Calgary reveal children can acquire and switch between languages effortlessly as long as they start young and interact regularly in those tongues.
January 27 was Family Literacy Day and the National Adult Literacy Database (NALD) had the opportunity to speak to Sheree Fitch, award-winning Canadian children’s author, about what the learning journey means to her.
A new web-based resource lets parents and teachers better help children who demonstrate unusual or worrisome emotions and behaviour, providing guidance as to whether they are a normal part of development or a potential mental health problem.
The Hershey Centre in Mississauga is the place to be on Family Literacy Day as the Mississauga Majors and Peterborough Petes battle on the ice on Friday, January 27, at 7:30 p.m. in the name of literacy and learning.
Posted: January 18, 2012 |

Category: Learning
British Columbia may have one of the largest Aboriginal populations in Canada but it isn’t the only province whose first peoples are struggling to reconcile the history of colonialism, forced assimilation and abuse found in the residential school system with the need to educate and prepare their children for life in the 21st century.
Posted: January 17, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
Lisa Raitt, Canada’s minister of labour, hosted a roundtable with key stakeholders on the issue of women in the workforce. The roundtable was held as a follow-up to a series of meetings conducted by the minister last summer.
Posted: January 16, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
What do you want to accomplish? Why? What could hold you back? These are some of the key inner dynamics to clarify on your path to achieving your goals.
Posted: January 16, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
If you need to have things a certain way at work or you become anxious, or you hold yourself to impossible standards, you may have a problem with perfectionism. Here are some tips for making some important workplace changes in 2012.
Posted: January 16, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
As a valued employee on the job, time is your most precious resource. Guard it well if you want to succeed and get noticed because nobody else will.
Young Inuit children are growing up with fast-evolving technology but some parents fear their traditional language skills just can't keep up. That's what inspired one Iqaluit father to create educational software for children in the Inuit language.
Beyond reading, homework, educational games and visiting the library, the poll identified different activities that might be helpful with literacy and numeracy - such as involving kids in chores and cooking. Only 14 per cent said they always use paying their bills as a learning opportunity, with 19 per cent using the sorting and matching potential of laundry.
Posted: January 9, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
Sit on the sidelines of a child's soccer or baseball game and you will see both men and women handling work issues from their cellphones or iPads while cheering from the bleachers. Today, the workplace goes wherever we go, and these parents are trying to juggle it all.
Posted: January 9, 2012 |

Category: Learning
A First Nations Education Act could arrive before Parliament this year, aimed at breaking the cycle of failure on reserve schools and representing one of the most important and unexpected priorities for the Harper government.
The new year is here and with it come promises of change – eating healthier foods, going to the gym, getting a new job. But beyond the traditional resolutions, improving your literacy skills can help you make the ultimate change.
Family literacy programs are offered in communities all over Canada and are directed towards parents to provide them with tools and strategies to support their children’s learning on a daily basis.
Posted: January 6, 2012 |

Categories: Essential skills, Learning
The intent of the new law is to deter the most damaging and deceptive forms of spam from occurring in Canada. Spam includes more than unsolicited commercial messages. It has become the vehicle for a wide range of threats to online commerce affecting individuals, businesses and network providers.
Posted: January 6, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
Canadian workplaces lead developed countries in giving employees access to technology and allowing workplace flexibility, but are far behind what’s happening in developing countries, according to a new survey.
Posted: January 6, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
After two consecutive months of declines, the Canadian economy created jobs again, though the unemployment rate still inched up to 7.5 per cent from 7.4 as more people looked for work and outpaced the gains.
Posted: January 5, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
Canadians across three generations want to retire before 65 but will they be financially prepared to achieve that goal? According to the TD Age of Retirement Report, 61 is the average age of expected retirement for Canadians, and the average is lower for those in Generation X (ages 31-46) who plan to retire at age 60, and those in Generation Y (ages 25-30) who plan to retire at age 59.
Posted: January 4, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
The first thing Kyle Vuchko didn't know about Internet business was how hard it was going to be to start one. Now he could write a book about it. "Also, being in an investor-backed company, you have to think about return on investment, the lifetime value of a customer and cost of (customer) acquisition," he said.
Posted: January 3, 2012 |

Category: Learning
Why do we as English Canadians speak the way we do? How do people abroad distinguish us from our American cousins and what is a Canadian anyway? Sarah Elaine Eaton looks at these issues in her paper: Canadian English: Not Just a Hybrid of British and American English.
Posted: January 3, 2012 |

Category: Essential skills
Michelle Durant-Dudley's goal was simple: to ensure that First Nations people had the credentials they needed to take full advantage of emerging job opportunities, rather than being relegated to the back rooms. “It’s like being in a candy store, but you can’t touch anything,” she said. “They see these great jobs, but they’re stuck in housekeeping.”