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Post-secondary education - university, college, or apprenticeship training - has become the essential path to reasonably stable and satisfying employment for most Canadians. It follows, therefore, that the question of who gets into a post-secondary program, and who graduates, is now a critical issue not only for the individuals directly concerned and their families, but also for public policy and for the general Canadian public, more broadly. This is the issue that has come to be defined as access to post-secondary education, or simply accessibility. There is an obligation to acknowledge the importance of who has this access, partly as a matter of fairness and equity, and also as a matter of importance for public policy because a highly educated population contributes directly to Canada's collective social and economic well-being.

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The central proposition of this article is that Manitoba's faith-based higher education institutions have become more accepted by, and more closely integrated into, the mainstream post-secondary system in the province. Drawing on theoretical work explaining change in higher education systems, the article examines legislative and policy actions by government, public universities, and the faith-based institutions themselves that have increased the legitimacy of the private, faith-based institutions.

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Although there has been increasing optimism about the potential for social media platforms such as Twitter to support educators' professional learning, it is yet unclear whether such promises hold true. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to explore school administrators' use of Twitter for professional learning. Whereas popular media have described the benefits of platforms like Twitter in broad strokes, the present study provides a detailed account of the practitioner experience. This account includes not only descriptions of what leaders might (or might not) be learning via Twitter, but also some of the benefits of being able to socialize with colleagues online. This qualitative case study draws data collected from 17 school administrators from throughout the USA and Canada. In addition to individual, semi-structured interviews, administrators' tweets were collected for two weeks. Analyses were aimed at perceptions about Twitter, the knowledge shared, and its impact on practice.

Findings presented a paradox: although administrators were enthusiastic about the social and professional benefits associated with Twitter, they did not share or apply much knowledge commonly associated with administrator work. Topically, administrators' tweets tended to focus on technology, rather than other leadership issues. Also, administrators' informal tweets focussed on norms and relationships in the online community, rather than other dimensions to leadership craft. What's more, leaders were rarely able to point to direct changes in their school policies or practices resulting from Twitter.

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This article presents insights from a study into instructor professional learning in vocational and professional education (VPE) in Canada. While most studies on instructor learning focus on learning through formal professional development programmes, this study specifically focuses on professional learning as it happens in day-to-day practice. Analysis of 116 learning episodes reported by 27 instructors from various institutes for VPE shows that instructor learning is mainly focused on developing pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Learning episodes studied were often externally prompted, not self-directed and involved mostly action-oriented reflection. Ellstrom's theory of adaptive and developmental learning is used to further explain these findings. Because of the specialized nature of the content taught in VPE programmes, formal training in PCK is often not available; instructors rely on trial and error, student feedback and peer feedback to develop PCK. Educational leaders within institutes for VPE should consider encouraging professional development models that include collegial dialogue, such as mentoring and communities of practice, as well as the implementation and enactment of professional learning plans. Further research could focus on how existing workplace practices may be enhanced to further support instructor professional learning.

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This article provides an overview of technical training barriers for apprentices and employers and outlines how trainers and the jurisdictions have tried to address barriers through alternate delivery methods, such as flexible class times, mobile training units and upfront, online and simulator training. Input from the jurisdictions, previous CAF-FCA research and input collected at roundtable discussions were the main sources of information for this article. Relevant examples from the Flexibility and Innovation in Apprenticeship Technical Training (FIATT) pilots are provided.

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In this paper we consider whether certain countries are particularly adept (or particularly poor) at getting children from disadvantaged homes to study for a bachelor’s degree. A series of university access models are estimated for four English speaking countries (England, Canada, Australia and the United States) which include controls for comparable measures of academic achievement at age 15. We not only consider access to any university but also admission to a ‘selective’ institution. Our results suggest that socio-economic differences in university access are more pronounced in England and Canada than Australia and the United States, and that cross-national variation in the socio-economic gap remains even once we take account of differences in academic achievement. We discuss the implications of our findings for the creation of more socially mobile societies.

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This publication provides the first international comparative study on the world of adult learning activities, and offers the first systematic attempt to provide reliable empirical information on critical issues regarding the transformation of adult and continuing education in post-industrial societies. This publication is the result of a long co-operation between the UNESCO Institute for Education, Statistics Canada, OECD and participating researchers in seven countries. This publication looks at the extent of the learning demand among the adult population in industrialised countries, the number of adults involved in organised learning activities for vocational reasons, for reasons of academic or general education, and for socio-cultural aims. It also analyses who participates in what kind of activities, who does not participate, and why? The transformation of the learning demand and the main factors at work in the rise in the learning aspirations of adult women and men is also explored. Finally, the reasons for the need to monitor the expanding field of organised adult learning are discussed. The book is based on survey data collected for this purpose in six industrialised countries: Canada, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States of America, as well as in the peripheral European region of the Canary Islands (Spain). Although marked by significant differences between the countries surveyed, the data indicate a surprising increase in the participation of the adult population in educational projects, while at the same time revealing some conflicting trends.

This publication contains the following chapters: The amplitude and the diversity of organized adult learning: an overview of adult education participation in industrialized countries / Paul Belanger and Sofia Valdivielso; Canada: the growing economic imperative / Pierre Doray and Kjell Rubenson; The Netherlands: impacts of a new policy environment / Max van der Kamp; Poland: adult learning and economic transition / Ireneuz Bialecki; Sweden: the impact of the politics of participation / Kjell Rubenson; The United States of America: the current predominance of learning for the job / Thomas Valentine; Switzerland: growing demand, fragmented responses / Anna Borkowsky; The Canary Islands: a dual learning society / Sofia Valdivielso and Gonzalo Rodriguez; Methodologies for monitoring adult education participation / Abrar Hasan and Albert Tuijnman. There are appendices that provide a description of data-collection procedures and results from adult education participation survey.

Chapters from this publication are indexed from TD/TNC 62.143 to TD/TNC 62.151. Show less

In the 2009 budget the Canadian federal government provided funding for the Aboriginal Skills and Training Strategic Investment Fund (ASTSIF) over two years (from April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2011). The fund provided support for short-term, focused initiatives designed to help Aboriginal Canadians obtain the specific training they required to benefit from employment opportunities. This initiative was designed to provide immediate assistance to Aboriginal Canadians affected by the 2008 economic downturn. This economic context required ASTSIF projects to be designed and delivered quickly. As such, projects were constrained by limited time available to fully carry out their planning, implementation and data collection activities. No project was longer than 18 months in duration and all program activities were finalised by March 31, 2011.

The evaluation identified lessons and best practices that could be considered in the design of future projects and programs. In addition, it focused on assessing the impact of the projects on participants as well as on issues related to the design and delivery, particularly the development of partnerships, leveraging, ASTSIF's relationship to other programming, administrative costs, and performance measurement.

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This article examines long-term trends in employment for postsecondary students. The rate of employment, hours of work and employment earnings of male and female students are covered. How other student characteristics relate to employment is also addressed. Particular attention is paid to student employment during labour market downturns.

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This paper examines the reasons why students drop out of school, and the long term consequences of leaving school early. A comparison is made of the effects of compulsory schooling in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The question is raised of why, in spite of findings that suggest that one year of compulsory schooling raises subsequent annual earnings by 10 to 14 per cent for youths from all three countries, and that there are similar gains in terms of health, likelihood of employment and other labour market activities, there continues to be a substantial drop-out rate. Four possibilities are given as explanation: firstly, that drop-outs hate school; secondly, that students or parents are financially constrained; thirdly, that students want to invest in further education but that their parents are unwilling to bear the costs; and fourth, that the risks of investment in education are too high. Show less