Absolutely.
ABC has had the privilege of appearing before this committee several times to speak to the importance of literacy and essential skills for Canadians. We appreciate being able to do so.
Today I'm pleased to be able to speak to you about this issue within the context of addressing existing labour shortages in high-demand occupations. We believe, and research demonstrates, that the weak literacy and essential skills of Canadians are directly related to the difficulties employers are having in finding the trained workers they need. When I speak of the essential skills, I'm referring to reading, writing, document use, and numeracy, which collectively are known as literacy skills, as well as oral communications, computer skills, thinking skills, working with others, and continuous learning.
Research undertaken earlier this year by Rogers Connect market research group on behalf of ABC Life Literacy Canada indicates that 80% of Canadian business leaders find it difficult to find qualified employees. More relevant to this committee, nearly half of these respondents attributed this difficulty to the low literacy and essential skills levels of Canada's labour pool.
The essential skills we looked at in this survey are not technical skills or job-specific skills required by particular occupations but, rather, the skills applied in all occupations. Those are the essential skills I just referred to.
Poor and low-level literacy and essential skills are a reality throughout Canada. According to the last international assessment in 2003, 42% of Canadians are at low levels of literacy. That means they fall below a high school graduate's level of literacy and struggle with common tasks. On a scale of one through five, it is generally understood that possessing essential skills at a minimum of level three complexity is required to manage the demands of day-to-day tasks in work, in one's life, and in learning.
New international research on the literacy and essential skill levels of Canadians is due to be released next year. It is known as the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies. Sadly, early indications suggest that we will not see significant improvement in these scores. This reality is seen in workplaces across the country.
Please allow me to illustrate the impact this deficiency has on the lives of some Canadians.
A personal support worker misses out on training opportunities because she cannot read the information flyer she received with her pay stub. Her manager assumes she’s not interested.
A machine operator does not follow safe handling procedures of a chemical because he does not understand the MSDS.
Each month, a grocery store clerk misses his shift the first day after the new schedule is posted.
At a production team meeting, an employee is reluctant to share a good idea that would lead to efficiencies, for fear she would be asked to speak in front of everyone or maybe even write it down. Her supervisor finds her disengaged.
A maintenance worker is unaware of the implementation of a new alarm system because he does not know that the posted memo is intended for him.
A cashier is regularly short in his till.
A powder-coating company has an excellent team with incredible workmanship on all orders to date. Suddenly, there is a sharp increase in errors on job specifications just after a computerized system is introduced on the production floor.
The company newsletter includes important graphs and projections for the coming year that a line operator doesn’t realize forecasts a decline in sales that could likely result in a shortage of work.
Employees in a hospital must now log into the intranet to access relevant information, and their manager is finding that many are missing important deadlines.
A newly hired employee signs her employment contract without reading the policies and procedures.
Increasingly, we see Canadian business and employers, large and small, recognizing the importance of improving the skills of Canadians. For instance, I point to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s recent report, “Top 10 Barriers to Competitiveness”, which puts skills training at number one. Their more recent report on consultations around this clearly identifies literacy and essential skills as a problem to be addressed. I quote:
We need to focus seriously on upgrading the skills of our existing employees.
Our members told us the dismaying story of a workforce which often lacks basic skills—literacy, numeracy, communication skills.
Canada urgently needs to revamp its policies, programs and attitudes to support continuous, life-long learning and skills upgrading.
The Chamber of Commerce goes on to recommend that the business community step up its investment in workplace training.
At ABC we couldn’t agree more. We believe that improving the literacy and essential skills of Canadians is a shared responsibility. Governments, employers, literacy organizations, employees, and Canadians in general have a role to play. It is not one sector's fault or responsibility; we must all work together to find the solutions, especially for our high-demand sectors and jobs.
In the view of ABC Life Literacy Canada, we believe this committee could make a significant contribution to the improvement of this issue by making recommendations that call on a more integrated approach that engages government, business, literacy providers, and individual Canadians. For too long the existing system has served Canadians in a scattered approach, yielding inadequate improvement in literacy and essential skills of Canadians.
When my colleague, ABC President Margaret Eaton, appeared before you last year, she illustrated the effectiveness and impact of integrated programs at diamond mines in the Northwest Territories. The training programs include literacy and basic skills, the opportunity to attain a GED diploma, and job-specific training on equipment and systems. The program has become a model for other industries and sectors that need a large, highly skilled workforce, such as forestry and energy.
Most important to the conversation this morning, this program was partially funded by the territorial government and partially by the employer, and it included a contribution of time from the employees.
Large employers typically play a significant and large role in the programs such as the one I’ve just highlighted, but skills-based, high-demand jobs are found with employers both large and small. The small and medium-sized employer sector, the acknowledged engine of Canadian employment, cannot be left out of this conversation. Integrated policies and measures need to be found that provide the means to help the employees of small and medium-sized businesses where there are also high-demand jobs.
In this committee’s report, “Skills Development in Remote Rural Communities in an Era of Fiscal Restraint”, tabled in June, recommendations included a tax credit supporting private sector training programs aimed at the aboriginal population in remote communities.
ABC Life Literacy Canada was pleased to see this in your report.
As a long-standing advocate of policy measures that would incent employers to come to the table to support essential skills training, we urge you to consider similar recommendations to truly incent a shared approach to essential skills training in Canada. A tax credit for essential skills training in the workplace would go a significant way in this regard and encourage employers, large and small, to invest in essential skills training.
Through such measures, the leadership of our federal government can help ensure that our workforce has the skills that will allow Canadians to be successful in those high-demand jobs and ensure that Canadian business thrives.
Thank you for the opportunity for appearing before you this morning.