DEFINITIONS

Since a number of technical terms are used frequently throughout this study, the following Statistics Canada definitions* are provided for the convenience of the reader.

• Education and Training

School Attendance - refers to either full-time or part-time (day or evening) attendance at a school, college, technical institute, vocational school, or university at any time between September of a given year and June of the following year.

Full-Time School Attendance - refers to taking 75% or more of the normal course load in the grade or year in which the person is registered (if both, then full-time is recorded). Attendance at courses that were taken for leisure or recreation is not included.

Illiteracy - refers, in this research, to less than a Grade 9 education, primarily because this is the "breakpoint" favored in Census data for a number of decades. However, there is considerable debate whether this definition remains meaningful in 1985. A number of scholars** suggest that assigning any grade level to literacy in the so-called Information Age is misleading and argue for a functional measure of illiteracy which is independent of the grade level completed.

* The only exceptions to this are the definitions for illiteracy and for differentiating between "education" and "training." These are noted in this section of the study.

** Thomas, A.M. Adult Illiteracy in Canada. A Challenge; 1983.

DeCoito, P.A. Women and Adult Basic Education in Canada: An Exploratory Study,
CCLOW, 1984.

Although some of these researchers would include a larger proportion of the population among people considered illiterate (e.g., those who have less than a Grade 11 education or are otherwise functionally illiterate), few would place the criterion for illiteracy at less than Grade 9. Thus, Grade 9 education as a minimum rate of literacy has been used in this study.

Education - refers, in this research, to study within recognized institutions including elementary and secondary school, community college, CEGEP, trade schools and universities.

Training - refers, in this research, to two distinct processes. One type of training is that funded by Employment and Immigration Canada, whether institutional or not. The second process documented as training is "adult education", as defined by Devereaux in her study, "One In Every Five". However, the authors of the present study recognize that the distinction here and elsewhere between education and training is largely arbitrary. In the current report, the distinction is constrained by the categories established in the reference data.

• Employment

Labor Force - the labor force is composed of that portion of the civilian non-institutional population 15 years of age and over who, during the one week in the month examined, were employed or were receiving unemployment benefits and thus considered to be "looking for work". Therefore, this does not include the (large) group who may want to work but who no longer receive unemployment benefits.

Employed - employed persons are those who, during the reference week:

1. did any work at all (i.e., paid work in the context of employer-employee relationship)
2. had a job but were not at work due to: illness, disability, etc.

Unemployed - are those persons who:

1. were without work, had actively looked for work in the past 4 weeks (ending with reference week) and were available for work
   
   
2. had not actively looked for work in the past 4 weeks but had been on layoff and were available for work
   
   
3. had not actively looked for work in the past 4 weeks but had a new Job to start in 4 weeks or less from reference week, and were available for work.