National Adult Literacy Database

The eMentoring program is geared to aboriginal youth in grades 6 through 12. Those who participate get matched with a UBC health-sciences student (who could be studying anything from nursing to physical therapy), and from there they connect via an online platform that allows for safe, secure discussions and semi-structured activities.

To mark the beginning of Financial Literacy Month, CCFL has launched the Financial Literacy Evaluation Resource Kit, a complete set of tools to enable community organizations to measure, report on, and enhance the impact of their financial literacy education activities. This initiative was funded by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada.

Ushering in Financial Literacy Month in Canada, Scotiabank has announced the introduction of a global financial literacy strategy to support communities in Canada and across Scotiabank's global network.

It is clear that finding and using sources of sound financial information and advice and being able to manage one's own financial affairs effectively are more important than ever for Canadians. In recognition of these challenges, a number of organizations have joined together to raise awareness of the issues, to help find solutions, and to declare November 2012 as the second annual Financial Literacy Month in Canada.

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.

Decoda's Workplace Wednesday connects you with resources that link literacy to business, industry and the workplace. Today’s resource is a review of essential skills literacy initiatives in Ontario.

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.

The B.C. government has committed $250,000 for the two-year First Nations Forestry Technician Training Program, being offered at numerous college and universities across the province, including College of New Caledonia and Vancouver Island University.

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.