Digitalisation, globalisation, demographic shifts and other changes in work organisation are constantly reshaping skill needs. This can lead to persistent skill shortages and mismatch which are costly for individuals, firms and society in terms of lost wages and lower productivity and growth. These costs can be reduced through better assessment…

This fact sheet explores the education and labour market situation of young Canadians aged 15 to 19. In this paper we find that: (1) The proportion of 15 to 19 year old Canadians who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) has fallen over time; (2) In general, countries with lower NEET rates for this age group tend to have a higher…

Young graduates from many different fields of study help ensure a prosperous future for Canada. They are those who will build and maintain a strong social infrastructure in areas such as education, communications, justice and health, alongside graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), who will advance the frontiers of…

For decades, Canada has relied on migrant workers to help develop the economy. Many come to Canada through the Federal government's Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). The original intent of this program was to fill very specific jobs on a short term basis--jobs that required specific workers and skills not available in Canada. In the last…

The last 3 decades have witnessed the rise of reforms aimed at conjoining Canadian universities to the economic system. Critics have pointed out how reforms have emphasized economic utility in universities to the detriment of their sociocultural mission, producing negative effects. One curricular innovation that has spread in tandem with reforms…

Semi-structured, qualitative interviews conducted with an ethno-culturally diverse group of 27 doctoral students in one Canadian university department produced narratives that often featured stories of stress and struggle. Two interrelated themes emerging from the data are highlighted here: surviving financially and dealing with divisions and…

Ample evidence indicates that a person's human capital is important for success on the labor market in terms of both wages and employment prospects. However, unlike the efforts to identify the impact of school attainment on labor-market outcomes, the literature on returns to cognitive skills has not yet provided convincing evidence that the…

This article examines the outcomes of the ACEE program, which is a one-year transition program for youth with disabilities, preparing them for the workplace and adult life. In a mixed methods approach, the investigators surveyed sixty-six youth with disabilities who were alumni of the program and followed up in depth with ten alumni in in-depth…

This report investigates the prediction of labor force status using observed variables, such as gender, age, and immigrant status, and more importantly, measured skill variables, including literacy proficiency and a categorical rating of educational attainment based on the 1994 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), the 2003 Adult Literacy…

This paper replicates the work of Giles and Drewes from the 1990s. They showed a catch-up effect whereby graduates of liberal arts undergraduate programs, although at an early-career disadvantage compared with graduates of applied programs, had higher incomes by mid-career. Working with the Panel 5 Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (2005-2010),…

This paper looks at the importance of mechanisms that give formal recognition to vocational skills acquired through work-based learning and how such mechanisms might be developed. It describes how skill recognition can benefit individuals, employers and society as a whole, and identifies in which contexts skill recognition has the highest…

Most Canadian provinces offer high-school apprenticeships to facilitate students' transitions to skilled work and address employers' concerns about labour shortages. Using interview data with graduates from high-school apprenticeships in Alberta and Ontario, we analyse the impact participation in these programmes has had on their educational and…

Five years after the global financial crisis, and trillions of dollars in stimulus spending later, the crisis not only remains unresolved, but risks entering a new deeper phase in southern Europe. The global turbulence, although experienced with differing degrees of intensity and dislocation around the world, manifests as high unemployment,…

In many educational settings, students may have an incentive to take courses where high grades are easier to achieve, potentially corroding student learning, evaluation of student achievement, and the fairness and efficiency of post-graduation labor outcomes. A grading system that takes into account heterogeneity of teacher standards and student…

This article contests a racialised skills regime in Canada. Canadian studies of the labour market transitions of skilled immigrants are analysed through the lens of critical race theory. The analysis shows that knowledge and skills of recent immigrants in Canada are racialised and materialised on the basis of ethnic and national origins. Skin…