Keynote Speaker, Plenary Sessions & Workshops

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

The Keynote Address: Literacy, Numeracy and the Labour Market: Evidence and Prospects was delivered by Mr. Scott Murray, Director General, Social and Industrial Statistics, Statistics Canada on Friday, October 17, 2003.

Mr. Murray's presentation focussed on the role and importance of literacy to Canada and to the Atlantic Region. He informed delegates that skills and learning were sources of policy interest to government for the following reasons:

• concerns about skill barriers to economic growth, productivity growth and rates of technological innovation,
• concerns about the role of skill in creating social inequity in economic outcomes, and
• concerns about the quality of educational output.

Mr. Murray stated that the key policy drivers are demographics, globalization of markets, multinationals, diffusion of information and communication technologies, and competition from the developing world. Mr. Murray guided the participants through a series of graphs that placed Canada within a global context and the Atlantic Region within a Canadian context.

The following conclusions were presented by Mr. Murray:

• Literacy and numeracy matter economically and socially.
• The Canadian labour and educational markets recognize and reward skill.
• The education system is doing well overall but still produces significant numbers that do not meet expectations.
• Employer supported adult learning systems are extraordinarily skill biassed.
• Overall level of adult education and training seems too low in international terms.
• Data from the 2003 International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS) will tell us how skill profiles are evolving.
• We have an urgent need to understand the learning needs of individuals in Level 1 and how skill interacts with firm characteristics.
• A national "standards" exercise might help.

A copy of Mr. Murray's presentation can be found in Appendix B.