National Adult Literacy Database

The National Adult Literacy Database has extended the nomination process for its fourth annual Innovation Technology Award. Submissions will now be accepted until April 15, 2013.

The Federal Budget provides a welcome focus on university research, education and youth innovation that will serve to enhance Canada's future prosperity, said Ryerson University President Sheldon Levy.

MediaSmarts and the Canadian Teachers’ Federation are pleased to announce that marketing and consumerism will be the focus of Canada’s eighth annual Media Literacy Week, to be held November 4-8, 2013. The official theme will encourage educators and parents to talk to children and teens about the marketing they encounter on a daily basis.

The provincial government is partnering with the Learning Disabilities Association of New Brunswick to help apprentices with learning disabilities in their training. Apprentices now have access through the association to additional assistive technology to support their learning.

"Newfoundland and Labrador is facing very real challenges related to our population and demographics in the coming years. In fact by 2020 we will need 70,000 skilled people to ensure we can take maximum advantage of the economic opportunities before us. Through our recently announced Population Growth Strategy, we will build on the work of the Office of Immigration and Multiculturalism and keep attracting new Canadians as part of our plan to address these challenges." -- Joan Shea, Minister of Advanced Education and Skills

Laubach Literacy Ontario's 2013 conference titled "Looking Ahead" is being hosted by the North Bay Literacy Council in celebration of its 35th anniversary. Location will be Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario, June 21-23, 2013. The organization is looking for presenters to provide workshops on Saturday, June 22. The deadline for submissions is April 18, 2013.

Internationally renowned commentator on global affairs, CNN's Dr. Fareed Zakaria, who delivered the keynote address, said of the conference: "I think having a meeting like this ... to begin this process of really transforming education for the future so that it becomes something that is as innovative and as forward looking and as dynamic as so many of the other aspects of society going forward, is a tremendous advantage."

Some of the world’s most accomplished and promising minds working in diverse scientific disciplines will receive significant support from the federal government, through the Canada Research Chairs program, to pursue world-class research at post-secondary institutions across Canada.

NIACE welcomes the Community Learning Learner Survey Report recently published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), for its robust data drawn from learners themselves and as a valuable step forward in evidencing the transformational powers of community learning.

Literacy Partners of Manitoba, a growing non-profit organization, believes that literacy is a human right. The organization strives for a community where everyone has the literacy and essential skills to manage the challenges of daily life in their home, in their community and at their workplace.

The Native Women's Resource Centre of Toronto (NWRCT) is hosting the Minaake Awards, Toronto's first Aboriginal Women and Youth Community Achievement Awards, on April 10, 2013. NWRCT is an award-winning charity that offers life-enhancing resources, cultural ceremonies and teachings, and skill development programs to Aboriginal women and their children.

The ESL Literacy Network invites you to participate in its upcoming online workshop series: Using the ESL Literacy Readers. This two-week online workshop is an opportunity to learn, share ideas and connect with other ESL literacy practitioners.

Help inform and shape thinking around policy, practice and research as The Centre for Literacy prepares for PIAAC. The Summer Institute will examine and compare the learning from IALS and ALL across Canada and other countries, and explore how we can make most effective use of soon-to-be released PIAAC results. We will look at the new segments – problem-solving in technology-rich environments and the reading components – and at the implications of changes in levels and cut-off.

Spring is almost here – and what better time to improve your literacy skills! ABC Life Literacy Canada suggests fun ideas to help you sharpen your literacy skills this season.

Every sector and industry has its own jarring jargon, whether it’s an academic paper with sentences so long that you can’t keep track of the idea being developed, or corporatese – words that enter the business vocabulary and are so overused, or misused, that they don’t communicate anything.