National Adult Literacy Database

Education emerged as an issue of vital importance to the future of the North at Canada’s North Beyond 2011 conference, organized by The Conference Board of Canada. Paul Martin, former prime minister, said that the education of Aboriginal youth is more than an economic issue – it is the single most important moral issue that Canada faces as a country.

The Build Your Career with Essential Skills website connects people with the tools and resources they need to be successful at work – including 50 profiles recently updated by HRSDC, online assessments and customized test result reports. It also features instant customized learning plans that link the learner to classroom-based upgrading in their local area and free online resources.

"It's like weaving the basket. Aboriginal education needs to be woven right into the system. We believe everyone should learn and understand that we are an integral part of Canadian history."

Financial Literacy Month (November) will raise awareness of the need for financial literacy and encourage Canadians to seek information, programs and services to help strengthen their financial knowledge. To support these efforts, FLAG and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada have launched a new website to help inform Canadians about the multiple programs and services offered by many organizations across the country.

"The yardstick is always moving. The more technologically advanced we get, the further behind some people fall because they not only are lacking the basic literacy but they are lacking digital literacy. The gap is increasing."

“Skype ... re-establishes the professional side of the interview,” explains E. A. Clarke, an Ottawa-based partner with StoneWood Group Inc. “It becomes a dedicated hour. People dress for it, they prepare for it.”

Just in time for National Boss Day October 17, new research from OfficeTeam indicates few workers today are angling for the top spot.

To address this issue, CCL recommends the creation of a Council of Ministers on Learning — a federal/provincial/territorial body responsible for coordinating lifelong learning across the country. The report also recommends establishing clear and measurable national goals for each stage of learning as well as independent monitoring to assess Canada’s progress on meeting these goals.

Following two months of little change, employment rose by 61,000 in September, all in full-time work. This increase pushed the unemployment rate down 0.2 percentage points to 7.1 per cent, the lowest rate since December 2008.

High school graduation rates among First Nations students in Nova Scotia in 2009-10 were over 70 per cent, considerably higher than in other Atlantic provinces and the national average of 35 per cent for First Nation students on reserves, heard the National Panel on Elementary and Secondary Education. The panel was in Atlantic Canada seeking advice and recommendations for its blueprint for action to improve academic success for First Nations children and youth.

“It’s all about access,” says educator Dale Kirby from Memorial University of Newfoundland. “People who have jobs, children, mortgages and all those kinds of things now have an opportunity to continue their education.”

Young people are now competing with more experienced workers, and as a result, tend to seek more training, either through education or volunteering or unpaid internships.

"It is very positive to see the re-introduction of copyright legislation, as this remains a key concern for the library community," says CLA President Karen Adams. "We are happy to see that improvements introduced in the last bill have been maintained; however, modifications are required if the legislation is to ultimately succeed in its objectives, those being both balanced and technologically neutral."

Those who want to save are more apt to keep socking money away and more of it too, if they have just one goal in mind, shows work done in multiple countries by two researchers at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

NALD values feedback from the literacy and essential skills community so we are asking you to please complete a short online survey. The information you provide will be important in helping us understand more about our current users and what new services we may provide in the future. We have extended our submission deadline and would appreciate your responses by October 11, 2011, if possible. Thank you.