PART VI: DEFINING "PAID SKILLS DEVELOPMENT LEAVE"


The concept of Paid Skills Development Leave includes the people who will receive such development, the skills to be developed, the delivery systems for training and education, and the funding of such systems.

In the interests of women, our objective is the creation of Paid Skills Development Leave legislation. These laws will provide for those in the community with the greatest educational need: both full- and part-time employees and homemakers.

Paid Skills Development Leave will provide for education and training of employees without loss of earnings, job security, benefits, status or opportunity for promotion. Such leave will offer a wide range of opportunities for skills development through courses of varying duration, both full- and part-time, at educational institutions, community agencies and industry's in-house facilities.

We recommend that the identification of the needed skills and the content of the training, that is, the skills to be developed, be ascertained with a view to socio-economic development. A synthesis of the interest of both industry and of individual workers will be found in planning for life-long learning of technical and general education and personal growth and development. As the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) points out:

The importance of educational leave resides in the fact that it is both a component of the employment and training policies pursued by governments and employers and a stage on the road enabling the individual to exercise greater freedom in organizing his own life. 28

This synthesis will benefit all segments of society as well as ensure employees' enthusiasm, an important ingredient for successful completion of courses of study.

Training, aiming not only at general education but also linked to the actual problems and needs for the development of society and enterprise, significantly increases individual motivation. Such training can also better serve social change and progress.29

The method of funding Paid Skills Development Leave which we would support should equitably distribute the cost of all leave programs among enterprises and between industry and government. Involvement in the program must be mandatory for all enterprises in order not to create imbalance, or an advantage to companies that choose not to offer Leave to the economic detriment of those that do.

The funds provided for by Paid Skills Development Leave legislation must cover all salaries and benefits, as well as costs such as course materials, tuition, travel expenses for participants, child care and living allowance for homemakers.


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