National Adult Literacy Database

Formalized diversity programs have become a mainstay in many business environments. "The way business looks at diversity is it's not just an employee program. It's about looking at the community as well," says Amy Hanen, associate vice-president of diversity and employee experience analytics at TD Bank Group in Toronto.

"On December 6 we mark the day that 14 women were murdered on their campus 22 years ago simply because they were women," said Roxanne Dubois, national chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students, Canada's largest student organization.

There is an increased prospect of work stoppages in the public sector in 2012, because labour – which has quietly accepted restraint in recent years – is becoming frustrated with ongoing demands for concessions from government employers, according to The Conference Board of Canada’s Industrial Relations Outlook 2012: Going Sideways, With a Twist.

Employment declined in Quebec and Saskatchewan in November, while it increased in Nova Scotia. There was little change in the other provinces.

Unemployment remains stubbornly high, and yet employers complain that they can’t find the people with the skills they need. It’s time for a transformation of the way leaders develop and employ talent, advised Ravin Jesuthasan, managing director of Towers Watson’s talent management practice.

The coauthor of a new book believes we are about to see a radical change in the workplace that will give workers more choice over how, when and where they work. The change, fueled by the explosion in communications technology, will be the result of business needs -- a desire to cut real estate costs, a drive to improve customer service or enter a new market faster, or an effort to reduce high rates of employee turnover.

Joint initiatives among communities and businesses are helping to close the gap between the tremendous need for skilled workers in Canada’s North and the shortage of people with sufficient education and employment skills, according to a new report from The Conference Board of Canada’s Centre for the North.

TESL Canada and BC TEAL welcome proposals for presentations at the TESL Canada 2012 conference next October. As a major national forum with international reach, TESL Canada conferences are held on an 18-month cycle and offer an important opportunity for professionals to share their work with peers.

Recent research conducted by Ipsos Reid indicates the most important reason why Canadians would not relocate to another city is because they do not want to leave friends and family behind.

At the first of the Work and Learning Network’s 2011/2012 symposiums, John Servage drew on his 35 years of experience to present a rich case study which described how this troubled group of workers used employee-driven learning to turn their department around. John described how he and his staff broke the department into inquiry teams, and empowered them to change the way they worked together.

The disappointing Statistics Canada numbers are in stark contrast to economists’ expectations that 12,000 new jobs would be created in October, after 61,000 new positions in September. The loss of 32,000 jobs in the private sector in October was the third consecutive monthly decline in that category.

Wage earners will feel the pinch, as the bulk of jobs created will likely be low-paying, but more broadly the economy will suffer as the trend puts a damper on consumer spending, says Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC World Markets.

Whether your own employment situation reeks of entry-level desperation or you’re simply looking to move up the ladder with a bigger pay cheque, the offer of a promotion can be enticing. There may, however, be just as many reasons to pass on a promotion as there are to accept.

The Office of Literacy and Essential Skills (OLES) will host a webinar on Thursday, November 3, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. Eastern time. The objectives of the presentation are to share good practices and lessons learned, as well as HRSDC tools and resources that may benefit Aboriginal agreement holders and other organizations, and advance literacy and essential skills.

Amid an uncertain economic climate, Canadian workers can expect average salary increases of 3.1 per cent in 2012, The Conference Board of Canada has revealed at its Compensation Outlook conference.