Skill Set Training

Skill Set training is an important element of employment, particularly within industry, as the following trends suggest.

• According to Newfoundland Statistics, the industrial sector is growing at an estimated rate of 2% per year (600 people), and the retirement rate is approximately 4% per year (1,200 people), introducing a 6% increase in demand for human resources annually.
• Currently 8.5% of high school graduates enter industrial training programs. As the number of graduates shrink and the need for industrial sector workers increases, the estimate is that 40% of high school graduates will be required to enter the industrial sector in 10 years.

Source: Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, 2002/2003 Budget Submission, Innovation and High Level Job Creation, http://www.cme-mec.ca/shared/upload/2002-03%20Prebudget%20Submission.pdf

Provincial, national and international trends indicate new job opportunities are increasingly tied to educational attainment. In this Province, those with a post secondary degree, certificate or diploma accounted for 55% of total employment in 1999, up from 45% at the beginning of the decade.

Conversely, those with less than high school accounted for 20% of employment in 1999 as compared to 29% in 1990. Those with high school completion or with some postsecondary studies accounted for about 25% to 27% of total employment over the decade.

Unemployment rates also appear to be correlated with educational attainment. In this Province, the unemployment rate for those with post secondary completion was 11.9% in 1999 (5.1% for university graduates), as compared to 18.2% for high school graduates and those with some post secondary, and 27.0% for those with less than high school completion.

Source: Labour Market Trends, Newfoundland and Labrador, Annual 2000 All analysis based on Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey http://www.economics.gov.nf.ca/pdf/LMT/LFS_Q4_2000.PDF