Search Results

The contribution of immigration to the Canadian economy and society has been of continued importance in recent decades, due to being the main driver of population growth and their importance on the labour market. Given that Canada and other countries of the OECD are competing for skilled workers, measuring the socio-economic integration of immigrants into Canada is essential. Immigrants with postsecondary educational qualifications can help fill the labour demand in Canada, especially if their qualifications are readily recognized by the labour market. In this context, exploring the labour market outcomes and Canadian postsecondary educational attainment of immigrants is critical to understanding the various facets of their socio-economic integration.

Since the late 1990s, federal and provincial governments have shifted immigration policies toward immigrants with postsecondary qualifications, as part of the 'economic' category of immigrants. Despite this shift, the potential difficulty of qualified landed immigrants to transfer their educational qualification to the Canadian labour market continues to exist and may represent a barrier to accessing the labour market for some, and thus impact the supply of skilled workers.

This study explores in detail the educational attainment from Canadian public institutions and employment income of immigrants from the 'economic immigrant' programs who were granted permanent residency based on their ability to contribute to the Canadian economy. The analysis compares the skilled immigrants who returned to postsecondary education after admission to Canada to those who did not return to postsecondary education and explores their potential difficulty to transfer their educational qualifications onto the Canadian labour market. The analysis uses the Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB) integrated with the Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS) and the T1 Family File (T1FF) through the Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (ELMLP). The study population is limited to immigrants admitted to Canada as permanent residents in 2010 who were at the core working age of 25 to 54 years old at the time of admission, who had not studied in Canada prior to their 2010 admission and who filed taxes in Canada at least once between 2011 and 2019.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

If recent history serves as an example, the labor market will continue to undergo important and increasingly rapid changes in its demand for particular occupations and skills. Therefore, developing systems that can identify skills required in the market and providing tools for people to successfully navigate a changing work environment is necessary. New technologies provide us with new sources of information via access to big data. They can function as 'radars' to detect, almost in real time, how the demand for skills is changing and pick up new skills as they emerge. These new technologies are also leading to the creation of tools that can support workers looking to change jobs. This study sheds light on the changes that labor markets in Latin America and the Caribbean are undergoing in terms of their demand for particular occupations and skills. It also demonstrates the potential of a tool that, by leveraging new sources of labor market data, can help individuals and policy makers navigate the labor market and provide the region's workers with a means to detect skills that can help them move from declining occupations to emerging ones.

Excerpt from publication. Show less

Background: This descriptive study provides the first examination of global naturopathic education, regulation and practice frameworks that have potential to constrain or assist professional formation and integration in global health systems. Despite increasing public use, a significant workforce, and World Health Organization calls for national policy development to support integration of services, existent frameworks as potential barriers to integration have not been examined.

Methods: This cross-sectional survey utilized purposive sampling of 65 naturopathic organisations (educational institutions, professional associations, and regulatory bodies) from 29 countries. Organizational representatives completed an on-line survey, conducted between Nov 2016 - Aug 2019. Frequencies and cross-tabulation statistics were analyzed using SPSSv.25. Qualitative responses were hand-coded and thematically analysed where appropriate.

Results: Sixty-five of 228 naturopathic organizations completed the survey (29 per cent response rate) from 29 of 46 countries (63 per cent country response rate). Most education programs (68 per cent) were delivered via a national framework. Higher education qualifications (60 per cent) predominated. Organizations influential in education were professional associations (75.4 per cent), particularly where naturopathy was unregulated, and accreditation bodies (41.5 per cent) and regulatory boards (33.8 per cent) where regulated. Full access to controlled acts, and to health insurance rebates were more commonly reported where regulated. Attitude of decision-makers, opinions of other health professions and existing legislation were perceived to most impact regulation, which was globally heterogeneous.

Conclusion: Education and regulation of the naturopathic profession has significant heterogeneity, even in the face of global calls for consistent regulation that recognizes naturopathy as a medical system. Standards are highest and consistency more apparent in countries with regulatory frameworks.

Published abstract. Show less

Using rich administrative data for a full cohort of English secondary school leavers (2002/03 academic year), we compare earnings of people with higher vocational/technical qualifications to the earnings of degree holders at the age of 30, while controlling for prior attainment and background characteristics. We find that by the age of 30 the early earnings differential associated with high-level vocational/technical education tends to disappear and degree holders earn more on average. However, there is strong heterogeneity by gender and subject area. There are especially high returns related to higher vocational/technical education in [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] STEM subjects, which remain significantly above those of many degree holders several years after graduation.

Published abstract. Show less

The intention of this project was to see whether vocational education and training (VET) in Australia could be divided into initial and continuing vocational education and training (IVET and CVET) as it is in some other countries in order to provide better information to inform VET policy in terms of teaching and learning and also funding. For this project, in addition to a review of international literature, views were sought from various experts on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Australia. The key finding is that the application of the IVET/CVET dichotomy is problematic in the Australian VET context and instead a classification matrix of learners and learning is provided.

Published abstract. Show less

Recent studies in Australia have found that bachelor's degree participation in vocational institutions in Australia tends to skew towards students from high and middle socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. This outcome runs counter to overall vocational participation which is dominated by students from low and middle SES backgrounds. This paper uses data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) to confirm findings from a mixed-methods study on bachelor courses in vocational institutions by school leaver-aged students. It characterises the student population in such courses and examines evidence on the influence of determinants of bachelor participation in vocational institutions, in relation to measures of family background, wealth and cultural status and school type.

It is found that students entering bachelor programs in vocational education have higher household levels of cultural possession, are more likely to plan to enter university, and have higher self-assessments of academic ability than those undertaking traditional vocational qualification pathways, but lower than those who undertook bachelor qualifications at university.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Data from the 2016 Census show that Indigenous youth (aged 15-29 years) are less likely to be employed or studying than their non-Indigenous counterparts. The employment gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth increases in the years immediately following the end of compulsory schooling and continues to widen into the 20s. Indigenous youth are also more likely to work in part-time, casual and unskilled jobs than non-Indigenous youth. The situation for young Indigenous women is markedly worse than for men, even though educational participation and attainment are similar. These early labour market experiences are likely to have both immediate and ongoing effects, reducing income and wealth accumulation, and impeding future labour market success. However, there are signs of improvement in the labour market situation for Indigenous youth, particularly in nonremote areas. Between 2011 and 2016, increases in educational participation and employment saw fewer Indigenous youth disengaged from work and study. Growing educational attainment is likely to further improve employment rates because Indigenous youth who have completed Year 12 have far better outcomes in the labour market than early school leavers.

Published abstract. Show less

Using a survey module administered in late March 2020, we analyze how working hours change under the social distancing regulations enacted to fight the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] CoViD-19 pandemic. We study the Netherlands, which are a prototypical Western European country, both in terms of its welfare system and its response to the pandemic. We show that total hours decline and more so for the self-employed and those with lower educational degrees. The education gradient appears because workers with a tertiary degree work a much higher number of hours from home. The strength of this effect is dampened by the government defining some workers to be essential for the working of the economy. Across sectors, we show that there are two clusters: One dominated by office-type occupations with high shares of academics, home-office hours, and low fractions of essential workers; and one where manual tasks and social interactions are prevalent with low shares of academics, home office hours, and often high shares of essential workers. Short-term expectations show that workers expect current patterns to prevail and that they expect a lot from government support schemes. In particular, many workers expect to keep their jobs in early June due to government support and the expected unemployment response is far lower than in the US or the UK.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

This research compares students' level of education and qualification route to their employment and earnings in later life. It includes information on: personal characteristics such as age, gender, disadvantage; level of education including GCSE attainment and highest level qualification by age 25; and employment and earnings in the 2016 to 2017 tax year. It looks at a group of people who took their GCSEs in 2005. For this research, we define disadvantage as being eligibility for free school meals at any point between ages 11 and 15.

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less

This article provides information on the labour market participation of Canadians 25 to 64 years of age with a physical or mental disability related to seeing, hearing, mobility, flexibility, dexterity, pain, learning, development, psychological/mental disorders or memory. The factors associated with the employment participation of persons with disabilities are discussed, along with their job characteristics. In 2011, the employment rate of Canadians aged 25 to 64 with disabilities was 49 per cent, compared with 79 per cent for Canadians without a disability. The employment rate among persons aged 25 to 64 with a mild disability was 68 per cent, compared with 54 per cent of those with a moderate disability, 42 per cent of persons with a severe disability and 26 per cent among those with a very severe disability. The difference in employment rates between persons with disabilities and those without a disability was lower among university graduates. This difference was non-significant in the case of university graduates who had a mild or moderate disability. Approximately one in two university graduates, with or without a disability, held a professional occupation. However, graduates with a disability were less likely to hold a management position and earned less than those without a disability, especially among men. Among Canadians with a disability, 12 per cent reported having been refused a job in the previous five years as a result of their condition. The percentage was 33 per cent among 25- to 34-year-olds with a severe or very severe disability.

Excerpt from publication. Show less