An early exponent of this hypothesis was the Canadian Association for Adult Education, as represented by its Associate Director, Arthur Pigott. In an appearance before the 1961 Senate Special Committee on Manpower and Employment, Pigott expressed support for the new view:

There is good reason to believe that our present predicament lies to a considerable extent in ... a lack of correspondence between the job demands of trade and industry and the number of workers qualified and available for the jobs 3

He argued for immediate expansion of skill training for the unemployed. In addition, he noted that:

More than half the registrants for unemployment insurance have only a primary school education. This is a very large number of people. Among them no doubt are a great many who have good intelligence, and who are willing to undertake training. It will first be necessary to give them an "adult" course in elementary education 6

In Pigott's view, the investment was justified because:

Instead of paying unemployment insurance and public assistance benefits to certain people almost in perpetuity, how great is the economic gain if, by retraining, a great many of them can get back into the stream of production--and become taxpayers 7

He saw a causal relationship between illiteracy, lack of job skills and unemployment:

Welfare expenditures, some economists tell us, if properly made have much to do with the stemming of recessions and depressions. Prevention is always better than cure. It is not enough to offer casework and financial relief for individuals and families deteriorating through economic incompetence. For them a basic element of prevention comes through adequate education, 8 training and opportunities for retraining.