Introduction

From March 2 to 5, 2000, the Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women (CCLOW) hosted a conference on women's learning, education and training in Canada, in collaboration with the National Women's Reference Group on Labor Market Issues (NWRG). The conference brought together a diversity of women from across Ontario and the rest of Canada to discuss the status of women's learning, education and training in this country and to strategize for the future.

CCLOW has a twenty year history of addressing women's learning and educational needs in Canada. Prior to its establishment in 1979 by a committed group of feminist educators, no other organization in the country, perhaps in North America, exclusively addressed issues of learning and education as they affect women. Since that time, a guiding principle of the organization has been that, as the educational system and opportunities to learn are fundamental components of Canadian society, it is imperative that women's access to this system and these opportunities, is equitable. The work and research of CCLOW has focused on identifying and alleviating barriers to women's learning and it is true to say that the lives of many hundreds of women across Canada have been touched directly by this work.

By the late 1990s, in an atmosphere of threatened survival (through the reduction of public funding) and the transfer of political responsibility for training and education from the federal to the provincial governments, the need to examine the continued role of a national organization addressing learning and education became apparent. In the spirit of CCLOW's founding congress twenty years earlier, organizers planned a weekend conference to identify and examine pressing issues and to map out a possible future for the organization. As preparation for this congress, six overarching theme areas were identified by CCLOW's Board of Directors, with input from the organization's membership, and, from the summer of 1999 on, open on-line discussions were held to refine the focus of these areas and to elicit sub-themes and important issues. Workshops for the conference were designed based on the outcomes of these discussions. Information from both the on-line discussions and the workshops is summarized in this report, and a list of recommendations culled from the workshop discussions is provided at the end of this section. In addition, Appendix A includes the potential projects developed through input from participants in each theme area.

An auxiliary aim of the conference was to investigate a potential merging with NWRG as a strategy for the future. CCLOW has been severely affected by cuts to its operational funding. Ten years ago, it was a vibrant, national organization with active networks in every province and territory, a strong national voice, the respect of policy-makers across the country, a national office in Toronto and a staff of five who, with the participation of dedicated volunteers, consistently executed ground-breaking projects and produced unique resources. Today, the spirit of the organization survives in a virtual connection of women across Canada, with no physical office space or centralized locus of operation, a significantly reduced membership and survival dependent on the liberal commitment of concerned volunteers. Those volunteers, the membership of CCLOW and many other women across Canada feel it is extremely important for such an organization to continue to exist. Still no other body in this country focuses exclusively on issues related to women's education and learning and, in CCLOW's twenty year history, some of those issues (such as violence, literacy, technology, training and labour market issues, and women's ways of learning) have only begun to be addressed.

The National Women's Reference Group on Labour Market Issues addresses women's training issues directly related to the labour market and to employment. NWRG was born out of CCLOW's advocacy to establish equitable representation on the Canadian Labour Force Development Board. With the devolution of training responsibility to the provinces and the subsequent dissolution of the CLFDB, the time seemed right to propose that the two organizations unite to collectively address women's learning, education and training issues. The Board of NWRG agreed to consider the possibility and to participate in CCLOW's planned congress. Prior to the congress, discussions by the boards of the two organizations took place on-line and by teleconference. At the congress itself, the advantages and disadvantages of a merger were weighed by members of the two organizations, and other interested parties, primarily during Saturday's discussion period. A summary of this discussion (at the congress) and its result is included in this report.

In addition to a workshop format for the congress, the CCLOW Board decided to make use of "Open Space Technology." This process allows for the free flow of ideas and concerns from congress participants as a way to ensure that all possible issues are identified. As well, through self-selection, Open Space Technology offers a means to gauge the level of energy, interest and commitment to particular issues. A complete list of issues identified through Open Space Technology is included in this report, as well as recommendations culled from the resulting discussions.