National Adult Literacy Database

An Edmonton consultant’s international initiative will pair countries to build social infrastructure. Literacy Without Borders will also devote time and resources to preserving and building indigenous languages, many of which are on the verge of extinction.

Summer slide, the brain-drain that occurs during the holiday months when young people are out of class, can be a problem, especially for those who struggle in school.

Windsor’s job-shadowing program for people with disabilities began 20 years ago, although it was on sabbatical for the past four years, until being revived in 2011.

The Atlantic provinces have committed to developing a five-year strategy that will initially focus on education and awareness around the impact of social media on young girls. The ministers responsible for the status of women plan to launch this joint initiative in the fall of 2011.

Alberta’s three-year high school completion rate jumped to 72.6 per cent in 2010 from 71.5 per cent in 2009. The increase follows efforts by school boards, teachers, parents, communities and government to better engage students in the importance of learning.

Across the U.S., thousands of workers stuck in low-paying jobs are trying to get a leg up through free basic-skills classes that train them in everything from elementary math to basic literacy.

A Saskatoon bookstore had an influx of visitors recently after six families from northern Saskatchewan communities were given the opportunity to purchase more than 200 new books to take back home.

A Harris Interactive poll commissioned by the Workforce Institute reveals that 48 per cent of people said commuting has a significant impact on their job satisfaction and 32 per cent considered the commute when they chose their current job.

NALD is pleased to announce that the ESL Literacy Network at Bow Valley College has won the 2011 Innovative Technology Award. The network was chosen for providing ESL literacy practitioners with access to innovative online resources that inform classroom instruction and support ongoing professional development.

Tweets and ‘likes’ are becoming more beneficial to business, a new Robert Half Technology survey suggests. More than four in 10 (44 per cent) of chief information officers surveyed said they permit employees to use social media sites like Twitter and Facebook on the job as long as it’s for business purposes.

“Each of these organizations is making an important and positive impact in their communities,” said Scott Mullin, Vice-President, Community Relations, TD Bank Group. “The TD Financial Literacy Grant Fund will help grantees foster innovation and extend their program reach to benefit more people.”

A new report from AlphaPlus suggests that with the help of cloud computing, the future of cyberspace for adult literacy will see a proliferation of new and easily accessible literacy tools such as smartphone applications to help read signs and turn text into voice.

In his first public address as Minister of Industry, Christian Paradis reaffirmed the Government of Canada's commitment to a digital economy strategy. Speaking at the 2011 Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto, he underscored the importance of information and communications technologies to Canada's economic growth and global competitiveness, and acknowledged the private sector’s essential role.

Each month NALD releases Library user statistics in a feature known as the Top 20 downloads/20 Plus téléchargés. The report examines the number of NALD Library documents, in both English and French, which are viewed and downloaded by visitors to the websites NALD, NALD@Work, BDAA and BDAA@uTravail.

Immigrants landing in Calgary are confused by the dominance of English in that city, and express puzzlement that they don't hear much French spoken on the street or in buses. They wonder, under those circumstances, why Canada calls itself bilingual.