Literacy productivity relationships

This episode of Life Literacy Radio celebrates the 20th anniversary of ABC Life Literacy Canada with brief interviews with several longstanding members of the organization’s board of directors.

There is also an interview with Craig Alexander, chief economist with the TD Bank Financial Group and a board member of ABC Life Literacy Canada, who discusses literacy and productivity.

This essay, written by the senior vice president and chief economist with the TD Bank Group, appeared in an abridged form in the Globe and Mail newspaper on September 7, 2012, the day before International Literacy Day, which provides an opportunity to highlight and emphasize the importance of literacy as an essential skill.

This paper is one in a series providing plain-language summaries of a number of research documents from Statistics Canada. It is part of a project carried out by the National Adult Literacy Database (NALD), with funding from the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL).

The focus of this summary is a study that looked at the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) as a tool to help explain labour market outcomes.

This brief document offers a summary of a study that used data from the 1994 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) as the basis for measuring the quality of the investment in education within an analysis of economic growth for 14 countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

This report describes a pilot project undertaken by the Canadian Trucking Human Resources Council (CTHRC) and the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute (CPPI) to determine whether there might be a correlation between the skill levels that professional petroleum drivers have in reading, document use, and numeracy, and the likelihood of having safety incidents.

This brief video is one of a series of television ads developed to promote awareness of literacy. This ad specifically focuses on the economic boost that a more skilled workforce gives the economy.

The ads were sponsored by the Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training (CAMET).

This short video is part of a series of television ads developed to promote the idea that literacy encompasses a broad range of skills.

This ad focuses specifically on the importance of literacy for companies and features a businessman explaining that literacy skills are vital for ensuring that his employees can use modern technology.

The research behind this report establishes a link between Essential Skills upgrading during early apprenticeship training and return on training investment for employers. The report contains three major sections: the impact of offering Essential Skills training for apprentices; the impact on return on training investment; and lessons learned from applying Essential Skills interventions.

Despite recent declines in high school dropout rates, thousands of young Canadians still leave high school every year without a diploma.

The author of this presentation argues that businesses must become champions of literacy because it can increase productivity and profitability, noting that higher literacy brings sustainable gains to individuals, businesses, the economy and society.