Human Resources committee  Yes, to a degree. I would say it's more labour force development, more an employability focus, such as the panel is interested in, and immigration as well. But it all has to do with the skills shortage and utilizing older workers and finding out what they know and can do in a coh

Human Resources committee  I would say the Association of Canadian Community Colleges is very much a supporter of prior learning assessment. Because of jurisdictional challenges, it's very much up to the institution as to how much funding they want to put into it. Like any innovative strategy, this requi

Human Resources committee  Yes, absolutely. My organization, CAPLA, has about 300 members across Canada and abroad. Those could be individual members or institutions. It varies.

Human Resources committee  The majority would be in Canada. At the event that we had in New Brunswick last week, we had 11 countries attend. We have members in every province and territory, because prior learning assessment has been in Canada for well over 30 years, but in the absence of any dedicated f

Human Resources committee  Thank you. I think that prior learning assessment is relevant to all ages.

Human Resources committee  We have seen some wonderful programs that are in place in high schools to assess the learning of young people with extraordinary skill in one area and perhaps lower skill in another. Prior learning assessment can evaluate that learning and give academic credit for it, so that the

Human Resources committee  The nature of work has changed. There's a lot of contract work out there, short-term seasonal contract work that requires people to document and identify their own knowledge and skills, so they can parlay that into whatever job they want to have. In that particular case, the fac

Human Resources committee  My organization, CAPLA, does not have any core funding.

Human Resources committee  We have funding from projects that we undertake. In fact, I brought some materials for you to look at about some of the projects we've done for the Government of Canada. HRSDC, for example, funds a biennial conference every other year on recognizing learning, and for the last t

Human Resources committee  I guess there are a couple of issues. First of all, there would need to be some coordination. And if you're asking what it would cost to create a sector-like organization to manage this, I would say it would probably be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $300,000 per year over fiv

Human Resources committee  I think the impact is perhaps twofold. One thing is the message that it sends in the community-based organizations and organizations similar to mine, which work to provide programs to adults who are underserved. There's an atmosphere created by such cuts. And I think, when it com

Human Resources committee  Our organization doesn't have any core funding. Our organization is basically reliant upon membership fees and project funding, and we all know the downside of project funding--once the project's over, where's the sustainability? Even if the results are outstanding, where is the

Human Resources committee  Thank you.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Bonnie Kennedy, and I am the executive director of the Canadian Association for Prior Learning Assessment. I would like to begin my remarks with two questions for panel members. First of all, I would like to ask you to