This 14th edition of the Learning and Development Outlook has two main objectives: to provide L&D leaders and practitioners with data about the current state of learning programs, practices, and expenditures across Canada; and to provide an analysis of the current state of learning in organizations. The report summarizes the results of the Learning and Development Outlook survey sent during the fall of 2016 and winter of 2017. A total of 127 organizations completed the survey. A key finding that emerged from the responses is that organizations with strong learning cultures invest more in their learning and development and are realizing greater returns for their investment. Largely, they are guided by strong leadership that places a high priority on employee engagement and communication.

This study was made possible through financial support and strategic guidance from the Department of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and from Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan). This study was conducted by Knowledge in Power Consulting Inc., comprised of Blagovesta Maneva-Sleyman, PhD, and Daria Sleiman, BA. Marguerite Donohue, PhD, of Donohue Higher Education Consulting Inc., conducted most of the interviews. We wish to thank member colleges and institutes, Program Advisory Committee members, including employer and industry representatives, as well as former college executives, who completed the survey and participated in the interviews, offered advice, and provided critical insights. Without their cooperation, this study would not have been possible. We thank them all for their valuable contributions. The authors also wish to thank ESDC and CICan for their outstanding support.

The purpose of this project is to scan and review reports from other Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs) on immigrant settlement and integration, with a focus on the LIPs in Ontario. The project provides research support to the Guelph Welling-LIP Research Team in terms of reviewing priority areas of immigrant settlement and integration, and selecting potential performance indicators that can be used to assess those areas. We highlight some of the common priority areas and key indicators, as well as indicate the differences between the LIPs in terms of how the priority areas have been assessed, from the strategic plans and reports that we have obtained online or through email contact. In particular, the Bow Valley and Halton Region LIPs have specified the use of a Results-Based Accountability approach for the development of an assessment framework of immigrant integration, which works backwards from a vision and expected outcomes (ends) to performance indicators that track progress toward those outcomes (means).

The objective of this report is to examine the costs and benefits of the promotion of pay equity through a comparative analysis of different national models. This does not mean that, in case benefits outweigh costs, this should become the main reason for promoting pay equity. Non-discrimination and equality is a human right, and as such is nonnegotiable. The issue is rather how to promote it more effectively by minimizing the costs and maximizing the benefits.This paper will proceed as follows: in section 1 we will examine the causes of pay discrimination in order to identify the problems that pay equity legislation is intended to resolve. In the light of the wide range of existing legislative models and related outcomes, and in order to better understand the costs and benefits of each model, in section 2 we develop a typology of legislative models aimed at promoting pay equity. The costs and benefits of each model are analyzed in section 3 and divided into two categories: the first is related to the costs and benefits associated with the process, while the second concerns the costs and benefits linked to the results of pay equity measures. The different costs and benefits depend on whether particular practices are in place. These will be reviewed in section 4 which will attempt to identify the œbest practices that help minimize costs and maximize benefits. Lastly, section 5 will consider an approach that is closely linked to the issues before us, namely corporate social responsibility (CSR). We will endeavour to ascertain to what extent CSR effectively encourages employers to respect the principle of equal pay for work of equal value, thereby reinforcing the role of legislation. On the basis of our findings, we will present a series of recommendations intended to enhance the effectiveness of pay equity programs.

South Asians ― persons who can trace their origins to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh ― are the largest racialized minority group in Canada. The National Household Survey (2011) revealed that 1,567,400 persons reported being of South Asian origin, making up 4% of the total Canadian population (Statistics Canada, 2013). The substantial presence and rapid growth of this minority group make it an important population to understand in terms of their settlement and integration-related experiences. The authors of this paper bring together their unique disciplinary lenses- social work and law - to discuss various factors that contribute to the multiple oppressions experienced by South Asian immigrant women in Canada. The paper also focuses on the particular vulnerability newcomer immigrant women can face in situations of domestic violence.This paper is divided into four sections. The first section reviews the literature on the multiple oppressions experienced by newcomer South Asian women and their vulnerability in relation to domestic violence. In the second section the authors present the case of Tejinder, an immigrant woman whom the first author interviewed during data collection for her doctoral dissertation. In the third section the authors discuss how language, gender, race, class and immigration policy intersect to increase the vulnerability of Tejinder in relation to domestic violence. The paper concludes with recommendations for social work practice and for policy.

We study the extent to which manufacturing decline and local housing booms contributed to changes in labor market outcomes during the 2000s, focusing primarily on the distributional consequences across geographical areas and demographic groups. Using a local labor markets design, we estimate that manufacturing decline significantly reduced employment between 2000 and 2006, while local housing booms increased employment by roughly the same magnitude. The effects of manufacturing decline persist through 2012, but we find no persistent employment effects of local housing booms, likely because housing booms were associated with subsequent busts of similar magnitude. These results suggest that housing booms œmasked negative employment growth that would have otherwise occurred earlier in the absence of the booms. This œmasking occurred both within and between cities and demographic groups. For example, manufacturing decline disproportionately affected older men without a college education, while the housing boom disproportionately affected younger men and women, as well as immigrants. Applying our local labor market estimates to the national labor market, we find that roughly 40 percent of the reduction in employment during the 2000s can be attributed to manufacturing decline and that these negative effects would have appeared in aggregate employment statistics earlier had it not been for the large, temporary increases in housing demand.

The report, The Dimensions of Insecure Work: A Factbook, reviews eleven statistical indicators of the growth in employment insecurity over the last five years: including part-time work, short hours, underemployment, casual jobs, marginal self-employment, and jobs paid minimum wages under modern awards. All these indicators of job stability have declined since 2012, thanks to a combination of weak labour market conditions, aggressive profit strategies by employers, and passivity by labour regulators. Together, these trends have produced a situation where over 50 per cent of Australian workers now experience one or more of these dimensions of insecurity in their jobs – and less than half have access to “standard,” more secure employment. The report also documents the low and falling earnings received by workers in insecure jobs. While real wages for those in permanent full-time positions (the best-paid category) have grown, wages for casual workers have declined. And part-time workers in marginal self-employed positions (including so-called “gig” workers) have fared the worst: with real wages falling 26 percent in the last five years.

The labour market is increasingly demanding higher skill levels in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). And, the market is paying women above-average wages in these fields. It will be difficult to narrow the overall gender wage gap if women fail to make stronger inroads into STEM fields. ¢ Aptitude differentials in math among girls and boys as the source of women underrepresentation in STEM has been debunked many times over. The causes are numerous and complex, but include marginalization within educational and corporate institutions. ¢ Within the workplace, employers need to revisit whether ongoing marginalization is present. Women who acquire a degree in STEM are disproportionately slotted into lower paying technical roles.

Skills shortages have developed in certain fields and regions in recent years. Earnings premiums for people in some professions, notably health, engineering and skilled trades have increased. And vacancy rates have risen for skilled trades, with the increase being particularly large in Alberta and Saskatchewan. While reforms have been implemented to strengthen adjustment so as to overcome these shortages, there is still room to go further by improving labour market information, increasing responsiveness of the education and training system to labour market demand, making the immigration system more reactive to current labour market conditions and reducing regulatory barriers to inter-provincial labour mobility. This Working Paper relates to the 2014 OECD Economic Review of Canada.