Statistics show that less-educated Canadians experience more transitions, take longer to
find full-time jobs, receive much lower pay, and have limited opportunities to catch-up
with more educated Canadians.
It is also clear that members of designated groups are at a disadvantage in the Canadian
labour market. They experience lower employment stability and suffer more often from
lack of information and recognition of their skills, experience, and education. As a result
they are forced to accept lower quality jobs.
Toward a coherent transition system
A coherent Canadian system for transition into employment should:
- support the development of meaningful employment opportunities and prepare
individuals for them;
- serve the diversity of needs; it should integrate principles and practices of equity into
each of its aspects;
- incorporate appropriate mechanisms to assess and provide the basic
skills (literacy,
numeracy, communications, and problem solving) needed to work and learn in
present and future environments;
- ensure that skills and competencies are portable, across provinces and territories
between providers of education and training, and transferable, from one industry to
another;
- ensure that linkages are established, between education and training providers and
among labour market partners, and clearly identified to develop knowledge, skills,
and experience to facilitate career progress (i.e., career "laddering");
- contribute to an effective labour market and, hence, to the economic viability of the
country;
- be a responsibility of governments, but also be responsive
and accountable to the partnership of business, labour, equity groups, and
education and training, as a
condition of its success;
- incorporate monitoring and accountability within its various elements;
- develop a built-in capacity to cope with change, to allow the transition process to
adapt to changing circumstances and to occupations of the future; and
- operate on the understanding that learning is a continuous
process throughout one's
lifetime.