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  • 1. Skills in Canada: First Results from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) Archived
    Articles and reports: 89-555-X2013001
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    This report presents the first Canadian results of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), an initiative of OECD. PIAAC provides internationally comparable measures of three skills that are essential to processing information: literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving in technology-rich environments (referred to as PS-TRE).

    Canada is one of 24 countries and sub-national regions participating in this initiative. A sample of over 27,000 respondents was collected and allows reliable estimation at the national, provincial and territorial level.

    The report provides information about the literacy, numeracy and PS-TRE skills for the Canadian population aged 16 to 65. It provides results for Canada as a whole, as well as for all the provinces and territories. In addition, it looks at the relationships between skills proficiency and a range of socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender, level of education) across the entire Canadian population. It also reports on first results on the literacy, numeracy and PS-TRE skills of Aboriginal populations, immigrants, and official-language minority communities.

    Release date: 2013-10-08
  • 2. Literacy and the Labour Market: Cognitive Skills and Immigrant Earnings Archived
    Articles and reports: 89-552-M2008020
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    Considerable research effort has been devoted to understanding earnings differences between immigrant and Canadian-born workers. Previous studies have established that immigrants typically earn less than Canadian-born workers with the same amount of education and work experience. The low earnings of immigrants are often attributed to the specificity of human capital to the country where it originates - in other words, education or work experience in the country of origin cannot be directly transferred to the host country, resulting in well qualified immigrants holding low paying jobs. Another possibility is that employers in the host country discriminate against immigrants. This paper uses data from the Canadian component of the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS), which includes both standard demographic and labour market information for the Canadian born and immigrants and results from tests of literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills, to investigate these issues. Interpreting the test scores as direct measurements of cognitive skills, the authors provide a closer examination of explanations for low immigrant earnings than has previously been possible. In addition, the data include more precise information on where education was obtained and age of migration than is available in most previous studies, further enabling scrutiny of immigrant-Canadian born earnings differentials.

    Release date: 2008-07-21
  • 3. International Adult Literacy Survey [Series] Archived
    Journals and periodicals: 89-552-M
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    The International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) was a seven-country initiative conducted in the fall of 1994. Its goal was to create comparable literacy profiles across national, linguistic and cultural boundaries. Successive waves of the survey now encompass close to 30 countries around the world. This monograph series features detailed studies from the IALS database by literacy scholars and experts in Canada and the United States. The research is primarily funded by Human Resources Development Canada. Monographs focus on current policy issues and cover topics such as adult training, literacy skill match and mismatch in the workplace, seniors' literacy skills and health, literacy and economic security, and many others.

    Release date: 2008-07-21
  • 4. Literacy and the Labour Market: The Generation of Literacy and Its Impact on Earnings for Native Born Canadians Archived
    Articles and reports: 89-552-M2007018
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    This study examines the distribution of literacy skills in the Canadian economy and the ways in which they are generated. In large part, the generation of literacy skills has to do with formal schooling and parental inputs into their children's education. The nature of literacy generation in the years after individuals have left formal schooling and are in the labour market is also investigated. Once the core facts about literacy in the economy have been established, the study turns to examining the impact of increased literacy on individual earnings. Both the causal impact of literacy on earnings and the joint distribution of literacy and income are explored. The authors argue that the latter provides a more complete measure of how well an individual is able to function in society.

    The study focuses mainly on data from the Canadian component of the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS), composed of a sample of over 22,000 respondents. The Canadian component of the 1994 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) is also used in order to obtain a more complete picture of how literacy changes with age and across birth cohorts.

    Release date: 2007-11-30
  • 5. Adult Learning: A Comparative Perspective: Results from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey Archived
    Articles and reports: 89-552-M2007017
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    This study provides comparative estimates of participation in adult education and training courses and programmes, duration of studies, engagement in informal learning and sources of direct financial support, based on results of the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS), the Canadian component of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills study. It also examines levels of inequality in adult learning and reasons for participating in adult education and training, including the role of labour force status and job and workplace characteristics. Finally, it presents a review of the relationship between actual skill use and participation in both organized and informal forms of adult learning. Comparisons are made between Canadian provinces and territories and three selected countries, namely Norway, Switzerland and the United States.

    Release date: 2007-10-12
  • 6. Gaining and Losing Literacy Skills over the Lifecourse Archived
    Articles and reports: 89-552-M2007016
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    Recent findings from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) and the 2003 Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALL) suggest that improvements in literacy skill flowing from the initial education system are being eroded by significant levels of literacy skill loss in adulthood. This study uses data from IALS and ALL to explore how Canada's stock of literacy skill evolved over the nine year period from 1994 to 2003. It analyzes net skill change for various demographic groups for Canada and the provinces and explores the individual characteristics that influence whether a particular group has gained or lost skills on average over the nine-year reference period.

    Release date: 2007-07-06
  • 7. The Canadian Component of the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS): The Situation of Official Language Minorities Archived
    Articles and reports: 89-552-M2006015
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    This monograph focuses on the differences in performance on the IALSS tests between people whose mother tongue is French and those whose mother tongue is English in Canada, particularly those living in a minority situation. Various factors are examined with the goal of explaining these differences. Schooling, age, reading and writing habits of everyday life, as well as the living environment explains a large part of the differences between linguistic groups.

    Release date: 2006-12-19
  • 8. Human Capital and Canadian Provincial Standards of Living Archived
    Articles and reports: 89-552-M2006014
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    This paper examines the role of human capital accumulation in explaining the relative levels of income per capita across Canadian provinces. We use principally two different types of human capital indicators based respectively on university attainment and literacy test scores. A synthetic time series of the average literacy level of labour market entrants for each period between 1951 and 2001 is constructed from the demographic profile of literacy test scores taken from the 2003 Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey. The percentage of the working-age population holding a university degree is available since 1951 from the census figures. Our main results are the following. First, both human capital indicators are strong predictors of the relative levels of per capita income (minus government transfers) across provinces, along with the relative rates of urbanization and specific shocks in Alberta and Quebec. Second, the skills acquired by one extra year of schooling result in an increase in per capita income of around 7.3 percent. Third, we find that our literacy indicator does not outperform the university attainment indicator. This contrasts sharply with our recent result found at the cross-country level (Coulombe, Tremblay, and Marchand [2004]) and suggests substantial measurement error in cross-country schooling data. Fourth, by focusing on regional economies that have similar levels of social infrastructure and social development, our analysis provides potentially more reliable estimates of the contribution of human capital accumulation to relative living standards.

    Release date: 2006-04-05
  • 9. Literacy and Digital Technologies: Linkages and Outcomes Archived
    Articles and reports: 56F0004M2005012
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    This paper investigates relationships between adult literacy skills and use of information and communications technologies (ICTs). Using the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALL), it becomes possible to compare respondents' ICT use, based on self-assessed ICT use patterns and attitudes toward computers, with literacy skills and a number of socio-demographic characteristics, including age, gender and educational attainment. The paper offers data for Canada, its provinces and territories, as well as five other countries (Bermuda, the United States, Italy, Norway and Switzerland), allowing international and inter-provincial comparisons. An important objective of the paper is to examine outcomes associated with literacy skills in combination with patterns of ICT use, and this is achieved by profiling these characteristics and studying their relationships with respondent income. In addition, it offers a portrait of adults' computer and Internet use, including purposes of use, attitudes toward computers, and use of other ICTs, and analyzes such use, with a detailed focus on Canada.

    Patterns of Internet and computer access confirm the existence of "digital divides" both within and between nations. Apart from Italy, differences between the countries included in this study are not large. However, as found elsewhere, large divides exist within countries when examining respondents grouped by their level of income. In Canada, the Western provinces, the territories, and Ontario emerge as leaders in ICT use, although regional patterns are complex and vary depending on the specific technology examined.

    Many other factors are also strongly associated with respondents' ICT use. Age, gender, educational attainment, and level of literacy proficiency help predict whether a respondent is a "high-intensity" computer user. A significant decline in ICT use is found to occur after age 45 in all countries. The findings for ICT use by gender, however, were mixed. In the European countries included in this study (Italy, Norway and Switzerland), clear gender differences emerge but no such gap exists in North America. Respondents with less than upper-secondary education are significantly less likely to use computers for a range of purposes, and this pattern is most pronounced in Italy and Bermuda. In addition, scales that measure individuals' use of computers and the Internet, and attitudes toward computers, tend to increase with the literacy proficiency of respondents.

    Finally, literacy and computer use profiles are strongly related to the likelihood that respondents have high earnings. In most countries included in this study, adults who have average or higher literacy skills and who are intensive computer users have about three to six times the odds of being in the top quartile of personal income, compared to respondents with below average literacy skills and less intensive computer use.

    Release date: 2005-12-05
  • 10. Building on Our Competencies: Canadian Results of the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey Archived
    Journals and periodicals: 89-617-X
    Geography: Canada, Province or territory
    Description:

    The International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey, undertaken in 2003, measured the proficiencies of a representative sample of Canadian adults aged 16 and over in four domains: prose literacy, document literacy, numeracy and problem solving, and benchmarked performance against an international standard. The proficiency scores are compared between provinces, territories and nations, and over time. Moreover, literacy performance is examined in relation to differences in variables such as educational attainment, employment and unemployment, earnings and self-assessed health. Analyses of the literacy performance of groups of special interest, including women and men, young adults and seniors, recent and established immigrants, and Aboriginal populations are included.

    Release date: 2005-11-30
Reference (1)

Reference (1) ((1 result))

  • 1. Measuring Adult Literacy and Life Skills: New Frameworks for Assessment Archived
    Surveys and statistical programs – Documentation: 89-552-M2005013
    Geography: Canada
    Description:

    This report documents key aspects of the development of the International Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALL) - its theoretical roots, the domains selected for possible assessment, the approaches taken to assessment in each domain and the criteria that were employed to decide which domains were to be carried in the final design. As conceived, the ALL survey was meant to build on the success of the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) assessments by extending the range of skills assessed and by improving the quality of the assessment methods employed. This report documents several successes including: · the development of a new framework and associated robust measures for problem solving · the development of a powerful numeracy framework and associated robust measures · the specification of frameworks for practical cognition, teamwork and information and communication technology literacy The report also provides insight into those domains where development failed to yield approaches to assessment of sufficient quality, insight that reminds us that scientific advance in this domain is hard won.

    Release date: 2005-03-24
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