In the 2 years between 1989 and 1991, one out of every three Canadians was part of a transition process into employment. More than 8 million transitions occurred --16,000 per working day -- involving over 5.5 million Canadians.
In many cases, these transitions were not as smooth as they can and should be. Although some individuals moved directly from one job to another, most experienced periods of unemployment and other difficulties. Canadians today face a maze of unconnected education and training options, including conflicting funding restrictions for training programs, diverse counselling windows, lack of portability of accreditation, inadequate labour market information, and poor human resources planning.
The Canadian Labour Force Development Board (CLFDB) created the Task Force on Transition into Employment in February 1992 to deal with the policy and program issues surrounding the transition of people who are unemployed or not in the workforce into paid employment. This included both young people making the transition from school to work and adults reentering the workforce or entering it for the first time.
The Task Force was composed of representatives from business, labour, the education and training community, and the designated equity groups -- women, aboriginal peoples, people with disabilities, and members of visible minorities. The Task Force met 15 times, interviewed 19 experts (Appendix A), and through the CLFDB commissioned five studies (Appendix B). After a series of lengthy and often difficult discussions, we reached a consensus on 71 recommendations.
Although many studies and reports have addressed transition into employment issues, none has addressed the entire range of issues or proposed any comprehensive models. In this report, we have developed a coherent Canadian model for transition into employment. The CLFDB will consult with constituencies and governments across the country to find agreement on the model and, more importantly, decide by consensus what changes are needed in Canada to make this model a reality.