Work-related Learning & Labour Market Inclusion

This article is the third in a series commissioned by the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) on issues related to disabilities and to the themes of its five Knowledge Centres: Aboriginal Learning; Adult Learning; Early Childhood Learning, Health and Learning; and Work and Learning. The goal of this series is to raise awareness of the particular learning challenges facing Canadians with disabilities and identify practices that enhance their opportunities to learn.

The Canadian Council on Learning’s Work and Learning Knowledge Centre (WLKC) is dedicated to promoting better evidence-based decision making on work-related learning issues. It is co-led by the Canadian Labour Congress and Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, and has a membership of over 160 organizations from business, labour, education, government, the HR and training community, and literacy, community and prior learning assessment groups. Through its research publications and knowledge exchange initiatives, the WLKC’s mandate includes addressing issues of access to training for Canadians who face particular barriers to accessing learning opportunities in and for the workplace. For more information, please visit www.ccl-cca/worklearning.

Greater participation in work-related learning in Canada is increasingly viewed as a key priority for workers and employers alike. Job training and skills development lead to higher productivity and business results, and are the key to sustaining a highly competitive, knowledge-based economy. The more people engage in work-related learning, the more likely they are to receive better wages, achieve higher job satisfaction, and stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly changing labour market.

Unfortunately, not all Canadians enjoy the same level of access to workplace learning opportunities that open the doors to employment or lead to career advancement.

The Canadian Council on Learning’s Survey of Canadian Attitudes Toward Learning showed that almost 10% of Canadians surveyed in 2006 reported that they were unable to take work-related training because a disability prevented them from doing so.1 This is in part because persons with disabilities — whether unemployed or employed — do not enjoy the same access to training opportunities as the Canadian population in general. Persons with disabilities face a number of barriers to accessing work-related learning opportunities that go well beyond the physical accessibility issues.

Key legislation and policies such as employment equity legislation and public financial incentives have tried to promote inclusion to increase access to employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. But as labour markets tighten due to shortages of skilled labour as a result of the rising demand for higher levels of job skills and the aging of the workforce, employers will have to reach out to untapped pools of labour.

In a labour market, where skills, experience and credentials come at a premium, access to work-related learning opportunities will be important in ensuring that people with disabilities can take full advantage of a favourable labour market whether it is for seeking employment or career advancement.

The gradual aging of our workforce also means that we can expect to see increasing disability rates among the working-age population and a higher demand for training and other supports to allow older workers with disabilities to stay in the labour market. Because access to workplace learning opportunities decreases with lower educational levels and increasing age, a concerted effort will be required to ensure that training opportunities for older workers with disabilities are available in Canadian workplaces.

Disability, Employment and Work-related Learning

According to Statistics Canada,2 the labour-market participation rate for persons with disabilities in 2001 was around 45%, compared with a participation rate of 80% for the general Canadian population. In 2001, unemployment rates for persons with disabilities sat at 10.7% compared to the general unemployment rate of 7.1%. Those with mild disabilities faced a 7.2% unemployment rate — very close to the overall unemployment rate — while persons with moderate or severe disabilities faced significantly higher jobless rates (10.6% and 16.8%).

Education levels between those with disabilities and those without tend to diverge as well, signalling potential differences in labour market and earnings outcomes for these two groups. Even for employed persons with disabilities (aged 15–64), the rates of post-secondary education completion in 2001 tended to be significantly below the Canadian average; 34.6% of employed persons with disabilities had a post-secondary credential of some sort, compared to 48% of the population overall. 3 For those who were unemployed, the difference was even greater.

Unequal levels of educational attainment lead not only to differences in employability and earnings, but also to differences in access to training. In turn, because ongoing participation in workplace training further reinforces individual employability, earnings and general well-being, those with unequal access potentially face less satisfactory outcomes. And in most organizations, those with higher skills levels and education credentials tend to get the most training.

Statistics Canada’s 2001 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey suggests that levels of educational attainment for younger workers with disabilities (ages 15–24), while still below the Canadian average, are closer to the Canadian average than is the case for older workers with disabilities.4

Whether this will translate into increased access to training, better employment and well-being as these young people mature in the labour force will be a topic well worth future research. But at present, the data also suggests that attention should be paid to the workplace learning needs of older workers if they are to maintain their skill levels and thrive in the current labour market.

Persons with disabilities do not participate in work-related training at the same level as those without disabilities. According to the Canadian Council on Social Development, in 2001, 56.5% of workers with disabilities reported having had no training in the previous year. For workers without disabilities, the figure was 45.5%. Additionally, 25.1% of workers with disabilities wanted to take training but were unable to, compared to 16.4% of non-disabled Canadian workers.

Persons with disabilities face a host of barriers to accessing work-related training. Disability itself is not always the biggest barrier to taking training. Statistics Canada data show that just over one quarter of persons with a disability cited their condition as making participation in training impossible. That compares to 45% who said it was the cost of training that was the greatest deterrent, while almost 30% said that they could not take training because the training location was not accessible or because courses were not adapted to their needs.

And, despite the progress made in many workplaces, as many as one in four Canadians with disabilities still report that they personally faced discrimination in getting a good education. A small but significant number of Canadians with disabilities (7.3%) say that they have been refused training because of their disability.5

Building Better Learning Practices

It is clear that workplaces require information and training to understand the learning needs of workers with disabilities as well as a support linkage for skills development in the workplace for workers with disabilities.

Research by the Canadian Council on Social Development has found that “core” high-performance workplaces with progressive HR practices (including training) tend to employ a greater proportion of workers with disabilities; such workers also tend to receive better wages and greater training opportunities.6

Sharing information with employers about these and other practices, programs or policies is an essential part of fostering a workplace learning culture in Canada that is open and accessible to persons with disabilities. Peer-to-peer mentoring within the employer sector is required for sharing best practices and case studies to produce an inclusive work-training environment for employers and their employees.

In its efforts to promote better evidence- based decision-making on workrelated learning issues, the Work and Learning Knowledge Centre (WLKC) is committed to promoting better sharing of such effective, innovative and promising practices in order to increase access to work-related learning. Two reports soon to be published by the WLKC will provide case study inventories of learning practices that assist persons with disabilities and other groups in securing access to work-related learning.

These reports show that there are a number of effective practices designed to provide training for unemployed persons with disabilities. These include the Neil Squire Society’s Employ-Ability initiative, Boeing Canada’s awardwinning Essential Skills Initiative and Math for Deaf Learners program, and ATN Access Inc.’s remarkable offering of e-learning professional development and skills upgrading programs.

Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, one of the two organizations leading the WLKC, recently announced its Business Takes Action initiative, which is challenging Ontario businesses to meet the target of achieving 10 per cent of all new hires being people with disabilities by 2020. Meanwhile, the Canadian Labour Congress, the other lead of the WLKC, has long been active on disability rights issues. Its The MORE We Get Together resource manual is an accessible and comprehensive review of disability rights and collective bargaining provisions that have an impact on conditions of workers with disabilities.

Financial and policy initiatives continue to be important levers for supporting persons with disabilities in developing and maintaining their skills and employment. But it is equally important to bring together workplace stakeholders — employers, unions, community, training and education organizations, and especially workers and learners with disabilities themselves, to share sound evidence and experience about the barriers to workplace learning that exist. Sharing information on what works, particularly from the point of view of persons with disabilities, will be an important step in meeting both Canada’s skills challenges and the learning needs of persons with disabilities.

The Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) is an independent, not-for-profit corporation funded through an agreement with Human Resources and Social Development Canada. Its mandate is to promote and support evidence-based decisions about learning throughout all stages of life, from early childhood through to the senior years. For more information, please visit www.ccl-cca.ca.

References

1 For further information, visit the Canadian Council on Learning’s website at http://www.ccl-cca.ca/CCL/Reports/SCAL.
2 Cara Williams, “Disability in the Workplace,” Perspective on Labour & Income, February 2006.
3 Statistics Canada, “Disability in the Workplace.”
4 “Canada slow to overcome limits for disabled learners,” Lessons in Learning, February 26, 2007, Canadian Council on Learning.
5 “Workers with Disabilities and the Impact of Workplace Structures,” Canadian Council on Social Development, 2004.
6 “Workers with Disabilities and the Impact of Workplace Structures”