Full report. - Social Research and Demonstration Corp

learn$ave Project: Final ReportQuebec’s previous gap with the rest of Canada where theincidence went from 29 per cent to 35 per cent during thesame period (Bélanger and Robitaille, 2008).Grants and transfersOutside of the EI-funded programs, F/P/T governmentsalso offer straight grants to fund training by employers.Governments have provided several incentives foremployers to invest in training through partnershipswith sector councils (e.g., initiatives to maintain the skillsof temporarily laid off forestry workers in partnershipwith the Forest Products Sector Council). The federalWorkplace Skills Initiative funds demonstration projectsto promote innovation in employee skills development.Several provinces offer grants, wage subsidies and otherdirect funding to promote employer investments in basicand higher skills through programs outside the EI system.For example, Ontario offers apprenticeship funding grantsto eligible employers offering apprenticeship training.New Brunswick offers the Workforce Expansion wagesubsidy to encourage eligible employers to hire and trainunemployed workers in the province. Saskatchewan’sbasic education strategy includes programming totransfer training funds to employers (as well as labourand community organizations) to reduce the costs ofproviding basic skills training to workers in regionscoping with major economic transitions.Estimates by van Walraven (2005) indicate that in2002 total employer spending on training was about$4 billion while public expenditures were about $70million plus an additional $280 million for apprenticeshipprograms. He estimates that public subsides of workplacetraining in Canada represent just under 9 per cent ofemployer expenditures on such training (including apprenticeships).Given that employers already bear most ofthe current costs for employee training and given that thedistribution of that training does not always flow to thosemost in need of skills upgrading, using employer-targetedpolicy levers to effect substantial change for low-skilledand low-wage adults may be somewhat limited. In fact,aside from funding for education providers, F/P/T governmentsaim most of their initiatives to promote trainingand higher education directly at individual learnersIndividual investments in learning: Encouraging adults to invest intheir own educationSurveys of adult learners find that about 40 per cent areself-financed or rely on family support to cover theireducation and training needs (Rubenson, Desjardins, andYoon, 2007). As compared with measures to promotetraining by employers, the SRDC scan uncovered a muchgreater range of policy measures to create incentivesfor individual Canadians to invest in their own learning.Some of these measures reimburse a portion or all of theexpenses of eligible learners; others offer cash assistanceor vouchers to limited subgroups, repayable loans, orincentives for savings to be used to cover future educationcosts. However, as the discussion below will make clearer,none of the strategies is widely available to or accessedby low-income and low-skilled adults. In some cases, thebenefits are tied to eligibility to, or receipt of benefitsfrom, other programs such as EI or IA. In other cases,the initiatives are targeted to specific subgroups suchas older workers or skilled new immigrants to Canada.In still other cases, the programs are largely designedwith young students in mind rather than working adultsreturning to school for a second chance.In-kind servicesA large amount of provincial and territorial activity isaimed at increasing access to adult learning by fundingthe direct delivery of adult learning and educationservices. The largest such example is support for adultsecondary education programs. In all provinces andterritories, governments fund the delivery of free or verylow-cost programs to help low-skilled adults completeor upgrade their secondary education. Often these aredelivered through local school boards, publicly-fundedpost-secondary education (PSE) institutions or distanceeducationmechanisms. Manitoba now funds a network offreestanding Adult Learning Centres across the provincethat offers basic skills education and secondary certificationprograms at no cost to adult learners. Federal andprovincial governments also fund community organizationsand training providers to deliver programs andservices for adult learners. Some of these are available tounemployed or low-skilled workers, such as literacy skillstraining and self-employment training. Other fundedtraining services are aimed at special groups. For examplethe federal Targeted Initiatives for Older Workers fundsorganizations to run skills development programs thatcan enhance the employability of older working ageadults. Similarly, federal and provincial governments fundlanguage training, employment skills training for recentimmigrants. Bridge training programs also help foreigntrained skilled workers meet Canadian qualifications orprepare for certification or licensing exams.Policy initiatives to increase the supply of affordable,accessible and responsive training may encourage somelow-income working age adults to engage in new training,but these initiatives cannot overcome some of theparticipation barriers that low-income adults face, suchas in sufficient time for school, foregone income, or lowexpectations about the benefits of returning to schoolpossibly based on bad prior experiences. The fundedservices also tend to be targeted to particular subgroups108 | Appendix A Social Research and Demonstration Corporation