At the Native Education Centre (UBC), programs range from adult literacy to community college courses and job skills training. An adapted questionnaire was sent to 171 recent graduates of the Skills Training Programs; 33 responded. Success factors at NEC included supportive students and staff, First Nations identity, relevance of course content, and strict but helpful regulations. Barriers included financial problems, and family responsibilities. Almost all respondents were employed in an area related to their training or were engaged in continuing education.

Baran, J., Berube, G., Roy, R. & Salmon, W. (2000) Adult education and training in Canada: Key knowledge gaps. Ottawa: Human Resources and Skill Development Canada. ERIC Reproduction Document ED 447 334.

This paper identifies important knowledge gaps in adult education and training (AET) in Canada and explores strategies to fill these gaps. Separate sections comprise a review of the current state of knowledge and major knowledge gaps relevant to each of three topics: (1) outcomes of adult learning, (2) motivations and barriers to adult learning, and (3) informal learning. The section on outcomes argues that more must be known about outcomes in terms of overall benefits and costs if the adequacy of AET in Canada is to be judged. The section on motivations and barriers, reports that key knowledge gaps include understanding reasons for participation and non-participation, and assessing whether individual decisions to participate or not are somehow unwarranted because they do not fully reflect associated costs and benefits. This section also argues that increasing knowledge of barriers to AET is a complementary strategy to estimating rates of return in the process of judging the adequacy of training levels in Canada and is essential in the design of specific policy actions towards the pursuit of equity goals. The section on informal learning questions whether informal training is the optimal way for some groups to acquire new skills. The report concludes by situating the issue of AET in the context of a strategy of human capital investment and provides a sense of what research priorities should be.

Bart, H.E. (2003) Consumers, producers, and critical bystanders: Reflections of rural school dropout youth on their re-construction of a “need-to-work” in a “new economy” compared with an “official discourse” articulated in Manitoba government documents describing youth employment initiatives. Master of Science thesis, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON.

This study examines the substance and nature of systemic barriers experienced by rural Southern Manitoba high school dropout youth, between 23 to 29 years, in their endeavours to complete their high school education and engage in employment opportunities. Their narrative is compared with an “official” notion of employment promoted by government rhetoric and manifest in “transition-to- work” programs in Manitoba. The discourse of these youth both contests and supports a dominant discourse along a number of lines including: non-materialist values, work/life balance, labour as a noble cause, a reciprocal notion of work and learning, and community (not competition) at work. This discourse contrasts with a “new” economy discourse characterized by emphasis on: more jobs, increased mobility of labour, lifelong learning, corporate alliances, proliferation of information communication technology, and global competition.

Benn, R. (1997) Participation in adult education: breaking boundaries or deepening inequalities? Paper presented at the SCUTREA International Conference held in London, July 1997. Accessed November 22, 2005, from http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/scutrea.html

This paper argues that education is a divisive agent. It explores the premise that one of the characteristics which promotes participation in education is social activism; that is. people who participate are already active members of society, and hence already empowered stakeholders.