Manitoba curricula reflect on-the-job realities

Winnipeg Technical College (WTC) has a strategic model for developing essential-skills curricula and is currently in discussions with Manitoba’s other four community colleges to implement it across the province. The strategy makes sure classroom teaching reflects on-the-job realities of specific industry and service sectors. The first curriculum, along with tools for college teachers to see whether students require literacy- and numeracy-skills upgrading, is due out in May.

WTC conducted extensive research with companies to understand the essential skills required for positions as varied as medical administration assistant, pharmacy technician, hairstylist and welder. The research, says Sherry Sullivan, WTC’s Essential Skills Developer, informs not only the college’s curriculum development, but also the approaches adult-learning centres can take to prepare students for college entry. Using materials that reflect documents used on the job can help target the essential skills required for different kinds of jobs and hone the students’ readiness to apply to college.

The college curriculum, in turn, will focus more on skills industry identifies as essential for entry-level positions. Sullivan cites critical thinking as an example of a transferable skill that will make students more adaptable to changing job demands. “You might have a welder working on one part of the line with a set of drawings that has been explained to them, then shifted to another part of the line with a different set of drawings. When they move, they don’t necessarily have the critical-thinking skills to analyze the new set of drawings.”

This change in curriculum has been a long time coming, but Sullivan believes it only makes sense. “There’s a business case for us changing, but the strongest case is in terms of serving the student.”

Food processors train to beat market change

A new online survey and human-resource tool kit to help Manitoba’s food processors assess strengths and gaps in their worker training is scheduled for a May launch. It’s all part of a sharpened focus on readying the workforce for increased competition, says Beverlie Stuart, HR Training & Development Co-ordinator for the Manitoba Food Processors Association.

Increased use of robotics and a shrinking workforce are putting added pressures on processors to train and retain employees. Companies that identify training needs, including literacy and gaps inessential skills, will be in a better competitive position. The online initiative, funded by the Workplace Skills Initiative of Human Resources and Social Development Canada, will help companies take an inventory of their skills needs.

“There are real concerns in the area of literacy, document use, numeracy, comprehension and problem-solving,” says Stuart. “Unfortunately, many workers really aren’t prepared for the world of work.”

What Stuart calls “employers of choice” lead the way with an increased attention to training. “They don’t have the turnover and they’re able to maintain a very young workforce.” They’re competitive locally and globally, she adds, “and they’re not necessarily the largest companies by any means.” There are over 200 food processors in Manitoba, many small- or medium-sized enterprises, employing about 8,500. Annual shipments valued at more than $3 billion represent about 25 per cent of the province’s total manufacturing output.

Occupational health and safety benefits have always been strong arguments for investing in worker training in this sector, but labour-market changes are equally compelling. “In today’s environment, the need to recruit and retain is crucial,” says Stuart. “I don’t think a number of companies are feeling the crunch yet. But the crunch is coming.”

Hard data on benefits of literacy training

It stands to reason that if you upgrade the literacy skills of workers so they can understand health and safety messages better, you reduce their risks—and, potentially, the health and safety-related costs of the enterprise. Anecdotal evidence supports this, but a new two-year study will put hard numbers to the claim. Conducted by The Conference Board of Canada (CBOC) and due for completion by 2009, the study will: collect data on the costs of low literacy skills in the area of workplace health and safety; and demonstrate the benefits and impact of improving employee literacy and essential skills on workplace health and safety.

Alison Campbell, CBOC Senior Research Associate and project manager of the study, says it will target a broad range of industry and service sectors, especially those with higher reports of worker-compensation claims and time-loss injuries. The report will include case studies to reveal current practice and real outcomes. “The business case for investing inworkplace literacy and essential skills is not just about fewer absentees and less waste, but about decreasing insurance premiums, claims and fines,” says Campbell.

The study will draw correlations between literacy training and cost outcomes that may persuade companies to increase their investments in essential training. On average, two per cent of an organization’s training budget is spent on literacy upgrading, says Campbell, and “there is sometimes an inverse relationship where companies requiring a high level of health and safety in their workplace invest the least on literacy- and essential-skills upgrading.”

Unique Quebec law revised to address job standards

A Quebec law, unique in North America, that mandates a minimum corporate expenditure on workplace training now also encourages the development of occupational standards. “There’s a kind of revolution happening,” says Jean Charest, Associate Professor at the School of Industrial Relations, University of Montreal, who sees apparent corporate acceptance of the revamped legislation as part of a trend to ensure employee skills are honed for a competitive environment.

In 1996, the law to foster development of manpower training came into effect, requiring Quebec companies to spend one per cent of employee wages on training to develop transferable skills. Those that did not spend one per cent would pay the equivalent to the provincial Ministry of Revenue’s National Fund, from which monies were drawn to subsidize and sustain other projects submitted by firms. Introduced over three years (1996 for corporations with payrolls of $1 million or more; 1997, $500,000 or more; and 1998, $250,000 or more), “the one-per-cent law” saw 90 per cent of large firms and 70 per cent-plus of smaller firms paying in year after year. In 2004, the law was amended to apply only to firms with $1 millionplus in wage costs.

Effective in 2007, a revision kept the one-per-cent rule for firms with payrolls of $1 million or more, but added a requirement that management and unions work together to define new occupational standards for specific jobs and develop a process of certification and recognition for those who meet the standards.

Charest says sector councils and companies have worked over the past year to establish the standards and means of recognizing required skills for jobs that have never had their core competencies defined. He calls the change “a step forward” since the new system addresses a long-standing need to boost the vocational skills required in many employees.

Quebec catching up fast in adult training

Substantial growth in participation rates in adult training in Quebec over the past decade has closed the gap with rates elsewhere in Canada, according to a sweeping picture of adult learning and training released in March. A Portrait of Work- Related Learning in Quebec, prepared by Paul Bélanger and Magali Robitaille of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Advanced Studies on Lifelong Learning at Université du Québec à Montréal, takes inventory of training activity, identifies the role of key government and industry-sector organizations, describes the impact of legislation that has driven training expenditures, especially among larger firms, and highlights areas where training gaps remain.

The report was prepared for the Work and Learning Knowledge Centre, and is available at www.ccl-cca.ca.

New study profiles resourceful SMEs

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are resourceful in seeking out partnerships and outside connections to broaden employee-learning opportunities, says a recent Conference Board of Canada study. Funded by the Canadian Council on Learning, the study assessed practices in Canada, Britain, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, China, India and the United States. It provides examples of innovative approaches that leverage existing expertise inside organizations, and there are 65 case studies gleaned from companies in all the countries surveyed. revolution happening,” says