National Adult Literacy Database

The skill areas where respondents experience the most challenges in working with distressed employees are communicating effectively and understanding their own emotional reactions. Survey results showed that nearly one-third of managers/supervisors had some challenges in these areas.

For Essential Skills Day on September 21, Literacy Alberta asked practitioners across the province to put on their thinking caps and visualize the nine essential skills in a photo scavenger hunt. Winners were the Centre for Newcomers, the Centre for Family Literacy, and VegMin Learning.

Sandi Howell is Provincial Manager, Sector Council Program, Essential Skills and RPL, at Industry Workforce Development (IWD), in Manitoba’s Department of Entrepreneurship, Training and Trade. She also serves as the province’s strategic advisor to Workplace Education Manitoba.

Organizations that focus on developing healthy workplaces enjoy tangible benefits. These take the form of increased productivity, higher staff engagement, lower absenteeism, lower benefits claims costs, lower turnover, and greater resilience. Returns on healthy workplace investments reported by large private-sector organizations can range from $1.81 to $6.15 for every $1 invested.

Over the past 18 months, the Canadian Literacy and Learning Network (CLLN) has been engaged in a series of research projects exploring the links between literacy and earnings, resulting in the complex Literacy and Earnings Project.

Business leaders recognize that investment in people has a direct impact on the bottom line. Raising awareness of this relationship is the goal of Learn@Work Week, an initiative of the Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD). This year, CSTD recognizes 16 senior business leaders who understand this relationship and are active advocates of learning in the workplace.

A new publication in the NALD Library could serve as a wakeup call for Canadians interested in or concerned about the future of the workforce. A follow-up to People without Jobs, Jobs without People (2010), Dr. Rick Miner’s latest work is entitled Jobs of the Future: Options and Opportunities (2012).

Through a competitive process, the Sectoral Initiatives Program will fund partnership-based projects that are national in scope and that support the development of labour market intelligence to help address skills shortages in key sectors of Canada’s economy.

We invite you to send us information about events you may be hosting in your community or projects you may be working on to mark the occasion on or around September 8, 2012.

Social finance is an approach to investment or managing money that aims to deliver social and/or environmental benefits. Social finance models are being widely explored as potential new sources of funding to address social/environmental issues. Since these investments must produce both a social and a financial return, proponents assume that social finance approaches are more likely to generate innovative practices and better performance by funding recipients.

An overwhelming majority of Canadians (94 per cent) believe that small businesses play a critical role in the growth of the economy and almost nine-in-10 (88 per cent) view them as vital job creators, according to an RBC/Ipsos Reid survey.

Consulting firm Towers Watson says it has found evidence that employers with a fully engaged workforce tend to have higher profit margins. The firm’s study covered some 32,000 employees, including 1,000 in Canada. It found that about two-thirds of the Canadian employees surveyed weren’t “fully engaged” in their work and felt frustrated by the level of support they receive.

Businesses that successfully hire and retain Aboriginal workers benefit in more ways than just finding qualified employees. Employing Aboriginal workers helps organizations build stronger connections and relationships within their local communities. Businesses become more diverse and inclusive when they tap into the talents of Aboriginal workers, and Aboriginal peoples who are successful in the workplace act as role models for others in their communities.

Employers in Western Canada, and particularly in the ever-expanding oil industry, have been looking for workers farther and farther afield to fill jobs in resource development.

Business owners in Alberta (73.3) and Saskatchewan (72.5) have collectively been the most optimistic in Canada for 11 consecutive months, while entrepreneurs in Manitoba (65.9), New Brunswick (65.7) and British Columbia (65.6) are comfortably above the national average, and those in Newfoundland and Labrador (61.3) are close to average.