Human Resources committee  Good morning. I am happy to be with you today. I would like to begin by acknowledging that we are in the traditional territory of the Algonquin Nation, and I'm honoured to greet and thank them. Good morning to all of you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I hope that you will find our c

Human Resources committee  I'm almost done. Another critical area to share with this committee is essential skills development. This must continue to be at the forefront of improving access and supporting learner success. ACCC has led Employment and Social Development Canada to fund essential skills proje

Human Resources committee  I'm not sure I understand the question about our funding because we do not receive any funding.

Human Resources committee  In terms of the strategy, funding goes directly to organizations, not to our association. I represent an association of colleges.

Human Resources committee  I could talk about that for hours.

Human Resources committee  I'll try to be very precise. First, we have a variety of models. Colleges in Canada typically work with industry and the private sector to ensure that the courses they offer match workforce needs. It's essential that the courses as a whole prepare students for specific jobs. I'

Human Resources committee  From a social and an economic point of view, everybody should be allowed the chance to work. To be able to feed your family is a matter of pride, and from the economic side, to contribute to society. We are finding that if you provide the training for people to be able to contri

Human Resources committee  I'll give a specific example of what would be useful. We asked Employment and Social Development Canada for $13 million to train trainers, and we're waiting for an answer. Right now, we can't do any large-scale training of trainers in many parts of the country. The Government o

Human Resources committee  I'll answer the second one, and I'll ask my colleague to answer the first one because she knows the program better than I do. We do two different types of things, but if I may, I will summarize because a number of them are explained in this.... We provide upgrading to ensure tha

Human Resources committee  We do pre-learning assessment. We ensure that it is culturally sensitive. That's very, very important. The colleges are trained to do that. Once we do that, we assess what is needed: is it more literacy, is it more mathematics, or is it more soft skills, as I mentioned earlier i

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the questions. I have a number of points to make. First, there is a concern right now in colleges that if the funding comes from a reallocation of the funding of the labour market agreement this would be a problem. A good part of that funding in fact goes to person

Human Resources committee  Without a doubt. A lot of people live on reserves. I used to work for Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. Unfortunately, many first nations people who live on reserves do not complete high school. Some do not even complete elementary school. That number is much higher.

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. Recent funding announcements are a step in the right direction because they will address that problem. However, as I mentioned, providing it for K to 12 is not enough because funding allocated to the post-secondary sector has not gone up in several years even though

Human Resources committee  Colleges have been looking at that issue for years. They use a variety of models. Once a year, there is a symposium where people get together and share lessons learned and best practices. That is why we decided to develop a protocol that will be modelled after LEED certification.

Human Resources committee  It will be a kind of certification to make sure all of the bases have been covered. We evaluate people and assess their specific needs. We use strategies to better meet their needs and ensure that the skills they'll develop will be useful to their communities.