learn$ave Project: Final Reportrewarded only when used for adult learning or smallbusiness start-ups.To assess participants’ attitudes toward education,survey respondents were asked on four-point scaleswhether they strongly disagree, disagree, agree, orstrongly agree with each of four attitudinal statementson education, focused on the link between education <strong>and</strong>employment, but also including one on student debt tolerance.The first observation from the results of the surveyquestions on attitudes toward education, presented inTable 7.1, is that a large majority of learn$ave participants,whether they belonged to the control or programgroups, had a positive attitude toward education. About91 per cent of the control group agreed or strongly agreedthat getting a good job depends on one’s education. Itis also noteworthy that a majority of the control groupwas tolerant of student debt: about three-quarters (13.5+ 64.4 per cent) of this group strongly disagreed ordisagreed with the statement: “It is not worth going intodebt to go to school.”A second observation is that learn$ave’s impact on educationattitudes at month 54 was positive but less so thanat earlier survey points. Participants in the learn$ave-onlygroup were statistically significantly more likely (by 5.6percentage points) to strongly agree, <strong>and</strong> significantly lesslikely to disagree (by 3.8 percentage points), that gettinga good job depends on one’s education. Impacts weregreater at 18 months (Table F.7.1 in Appendix F), <strong>and</strong>,as at 54 months, it was the matched credits that mainlydrove the impacts as opposed to the services. As for theTable 7.1Impacts on Attitudes towards Education (Percentage Points) at Month 54, Education Stream Participants – AdjustedControl GroupPercentageDistributionImpact ofMatched SavingCreditsImpact ofServices whenOffered withCredits ∑Combined Impactof Credits <strong>and</strong>ServicesGetting a good job depends on my educationStrongly disagree 0.9 -0.1 -0.3 -0.4Disagree 8.0 -3.8*** 0.7 -3.1**Agree 49.9 -1.8 2.6 0.8Strongly agree 41.2 5.6* -2.9 2.7I need more schooling to find a good jobStrongly disagree 1.9 0.1 0.2 0.3Disagree 23.4 -1.5 -0.1 -1.6Agree 46.9 0.7 5.9** 6.6**Strongly agree 27.9 0.7 -6.0** -5.3**No matter how much education I get, I willmost likely end up with a low-paying jobStrongly disagree 27.7 -2.6 -2.3 -4.9*Disagree 59.8 2.7 3.5 6.1**Agree 9.9 0.4 -0.2 0.2Strongly agree 2.6 -0.4 -1.1 -1.4*It is not worth going into debt to go to schoolStrongly disagree 13.5 -0.7 -1.6 -2.2Disagree 64.4 1.9 2.8 4.7Agree 20.2 -2.3 -1.1 -3.4Strongly agree 1.9 1.1 -0.1 1.0Source: Calculations from 54-month survey data.Note: The sample sizes for the control, learn$ave-only <strong>and</strong> -plus groups are 568, 842 <strong>and</strong> 859, respectively for the 54-month survey.Sample sizes vary for individual measures because of missing values.Two-tailed t-tests were applied to differences in characteristics between the treatment <strong>and</strong> control groups.Statistical significance levels are indicated as * = 10 per cent; ** = 5 per cent; *** = 1 per cent.Rounding may cause slight discrepancies in sums <strong>and</strong> differences.∑The figures in this column show the extra impact of the financial management training <strong>and</strong> enhanced case management services whengiven to those eligible to receive matched credits. It does not represent the impact of those services alone for those not eligible to receive thematched saving credit; it represents the impact of the services when provided with the credits.80 | Chapter 7 <strong>Social</strong> <strong>Research</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Demonstration</strong> <strong>Corp</strong>oration
learn$ave Project: Final Reportsecond <strong>and</strong> third measures in Table 7.1, the impacts aredriven mainly by the services <strong>and</strong> they are ambiguous<strong>and</strong> difficult to interpret. For example, at 54 months theproportion of participants in the learn$ave-plus groupagreeing that more education is needed to get a goodjob rose by 5.9 percentage points over the control group,but the proportion who strongly agreed with the samestatement actually decreased. Again, unlike at 54 months,the impact of the credits on the second measure wassignificant at 18 <strong>and</strong> 40 months.No impacts at 54 months were observed for the fourthattitudinal measure: tolerance or aversion towardsstudent debt. At earlier points in the study, learn$aveprogram group participants had become more willing totake on student debt to achieve educational goals thantheir control group counterparts (Table F.7.1 in AppendixF) but this change did not persist to the 54-month mark.It may have been that the attitudinal changes were relatedto the act of saving <strong>and</strong> planning ahead for education, keyactivities present in the earlier phases of the project.Impacts on education <strong>and</strong> training participationThe central goal of the learn$ave demonstration was toencourage participants to pursue further education. Thissection focuses on the extent to which this objective wasattained by the end of the study period, i.e., 54 monthsafter participants had enrolled in the project <strong>and</strong> sixmonths after they had completed the saving <strong>and</strong> cash outphases of the project. Note that, unlike the point-in-timeestimates of impacts on education attitudes presentedin the preceding section, the results presented here arein the form of incidence <strong>and</strong> mean dollar estimates ofeducation <strong>and</strong> training enrolment at any time during thefull 54-month period. Participants who had saved fastest<strong>and</strong> cashed out fastest (see Chapter 5) would have hadthe longest stretch of time to participate in educationbefore the 54th month. However, many participants tookthe full three years to save in the learn$ave IDA <strong>and</strong> thefull 12 months afterward to cash out their savings creditsso observations on education among these would belargely based on the six months following the last date tocash out their savings. The results in this section are foreducation stream participants only.Few real restrictions or guidelines were placed onparticipants in making the choice of an educational ortraining program or course. Participants in the learn$aveonly<strong>and</strong> learn$ave-plus groups could pursue any formof education or training from an accredited institutionrecognized by the national Canada Student LoansProgram. Because tuition costs are not the only directfinancial costs to participants, learn$ave funds couldalso be used for so-called “supports to learning,” such asbooks, computers, child care services <strong>and</strong> disability supportsso long as the funds spent on these did not exceed50 per cent of the total savings <strong>and</strong> credits accumulatedin the IDA, to a maximum of $1,500.The first remarkable finding in the results presentedin Table 7.2 (data column 1) is that a very large majorityof the control group had participated in some educationor training over the 54 months. About 82 per cent of thecontrol group engaged in education or training of somekind, with about 56 per cent enrolled in courses as part ofa certificate or degree program <strong>and</strong> about 48 per cent inindividual courses (outside of a program). These proportionsare about two to three percentage points higherthan what they were at the 40-month mark (see TableF.7.2 in Appendix F for impacts over time).These enrolment rates are very high compared to theincidence of education <strong>and</strong> training among the workingage Canadian population as a whole (see Chapter 1).However, the learn$ave surveys, collectively, askedparticipants whether or not they had taken education ortraining since the time of enrolment in the project, i.e.,over a 54-month period, whereas the national trainingsurveys (from which statistics on the incidence of education<strong>and</strong> training are derived) ask respondents to <strong>report</strong>on education <strong>and</strong> training activities in the last 12 monthsonly. 1 Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, learn$aveparticipants in both the control <strong>and</strong> program groupswould have already been inclined toward education <strong>and</strong>training by virtue of having volunteered for a projectpromoting adult learning.The second important finding from Table 7.2 is that thelearn$ave matched saving credits had a positive impacton education <strong>and</strong> training enrolment <strong>and</strong> that this impactgrew over time. 2 At 54 months, the credits increasedparticipation rates in adult learning by 6.6 percentagepoints, a stronger showing than the 4.7 percentagepoints increase in educational participation at the40-month mark (Table F.7.2 in Appendix F). In contrastto experimental impacts on account activity <strong>and</strong> otherfinancial behaviour, the enhanced case management <strong>and</strong>1 Results from the Statistics Canada 2003 Adult Literacy <strong>and</strong> Life Skills Survey (ALL), partof the International Adult Literacy <strong>and</strong> Skills Survey, indicate that the rate of participationin adult education <strong>and</strong> training for medium/highly literate Canadians 16-65 years of agewas 50 per cent in 2002. However, the learn$ave results are for those at all literacylevels (though the fact that learn$ave participants tended to have a university educationsuggests they would be highly literate as well) <strong>and</strong> the ALL results cover those 16–17 yearsof age who might be expected to have lower adult learning participation rates (whereasthe learn$ave age criterion was 18 years <strong>and</strong> over). See Rubenson, Desjardins, <strong>and</strong> Yoon(2007) <strong>and</strong> Chapter 1 of this <strong>report</strong>.2 Note that all education <strong>and</strong> training the program group has taken is included in the impactestimate, regardless of whether or not the education or training was sponsored underlearn$ave.<strong>Social</strong> <strong>Research</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Demonstration</strong> <strong>Corp</strong>oration Chapter 7 | 81
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