How does the current labour market training system function and whose interests does it serve? In this introductory textbook, Bob Barnetson wades into the debate between workers and employers, and governments and economists to investigate the ways in which labour power is produced and reproduced in Canadian society. After sifting through the facts and interpretations of social scientists and government policymakers, Barnetson interrogates the training system through analysis of the political and economic forces that constitute modern Canada. This book not only provides students of Canada’s division of labour with a general introduction to the main facets of labour-market training—including skills development, post-secondary and community education, and workplace training—but also encourages students to think critically about the relationship between training systems and the ideologies that support them.
Workplace injuries are common, avoidable, and unacceptable. The Political Economy of Workplace Injury in Canada reveals how employers and governments engage in ineffective injury prevention efforts, intervening only when necessary to maintain standard legitimacy. Barnetson sheds light on this faulty system, highlighting the way in which employers create dangerous work environments yet pour billions of dollars into compensation and treatment. Examining this dynamic clarifies the way in which production costs are passed on to workers in the form of workplace injuries.
Workplace injuries happen every day and can profoundly affect workers, their families, and the communities in which they live. This textbook is for workers and students looking for an introduction to injury prevention on the job. Foster and Barnetson bring the field into the twenty-first century by including discussions of how precarious employment, gender, and ill-health can be better handled in Canadian OHS.
Provides state-of-art materials relating to the management and organization of public vocational education and training (VET) systems and suggests a framework for developing the management competence of senior VET administrators encouraging them to review critically their administrative practices in order to move towards professional excellence. Covers management, organizational structure, target setting, planning, financing, and training administration.
Significant public investment and increased access to higher education lead to economic development - governments across the political and ideological spectrum believe this and have designed and implemented policy based on this understanding. The Development of Postsecondary Education Systems in Canada examines how these policies affect the structure and performance of postsecondary education. This comprehensive study compares the evolution and outcomes of higher education policy in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec over the past three decades. The authors begin with an understanding that in order to explain the role of postsecondary education in society, they must locate systemic change. Drawing on documentary analysis and interviews, the focus is on how policy priorities are reflected in "system" behaviours: performance, funding arrangements, design, and structural components. Current theories about the liberal-democratic state, academic capitalism, and marketization inform discussions of the changing role of higher education in a globalized knowledge society. The book presents policy and education as a multidimensional exchange between the postsecondary community, policy makers, and the behaviour and performance of educational systems and concludes that higher education is a key actor in the restructuring of the state. The Development of Postsecondary Education Systems in Canada shows how higher education policy has been driven by a changing political and economic imperative and examines the contradictions and unintended consequences of education policy. Contributors include Jean Bernatchez (Université du Québec à Rimouski), Robert Clift (PhD candidate, University of British Columbia), Donald Fisher (University of British Columbia), Glen A. Jones (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto), Jacy Lee (McMaster University), Madeleine MacIvor (University of British Columbia), John Meredith (independent consultant), Kjell Rubenson (University of British Columbia), Theresa Shanahan (York University), and Claude Trottier (emeritus, Université Laval).
In recent years job training programs have suffered severe funding cuts and the focus of training programs has shifted to meet the directives of funders rather than the needs of the community. How do these changes to job training affect disadvantaged workers and the unemployed? In an insightful and comprehensive discussion of job education in Canada, Cohen and her contributors pool findings from a five-year collaborative study of training programs. Good training programs, they argue, are essential in providing people who are chronically disadvantaged in the workplace with tools to acquire more secure, better-paying jobs. In the ongoing shift toward a neo-liberal economic model, government policies have engendered a growing reliance on private and market-based training schemes. These new training policies have undermined equity. In an attempt to redress social inequities in the workplace, the authors examine various kinds of training programs and recommend specific policy initiatives to improve access to these programs. This book will be of interest to policymakers, academics, and students interested in policy, work, equity, gender and education.
Canada and the countries of Latin America are in the midst of major changes and choices in the area of labor markets and related social policy. These decisions are likely to have profound consequences for the quality of life of workers throughout the hemisphere. Labor Market Policies in Canada and Latin America: Challenges of the New Millennium reviews the evidence of Canada and Latin America on three major labor policy instruments - unemployment insurance, minimum wages and training - and on the effects of the payroll taxes which are the main means of funding the unemployment insurance system and other components of social expenditure. This is the first study attempting an in-depth comparison of these labor policy instruments between Canada and Latin America. The useful juxtaposition of Canadian and Latin American experiences comes at a time when the trend in Canada is to back away from the perhaps overly generous or ineffectively administered elements of the labor legislation/social security net and when Latin American countries have undertaken significant reforms of their past systems but require further changes to move toward the sorts of legislation and support systems that characterize developed countries. The experiences of Canada and Latin America are mutually relevant since all are small economies forced to adjust to events at the world or hemispheric level and most are inclined to approach policy in an intermediate fashion which falls between the more market-oriented American and the more interventionist European models. Together with its comparative aspect, this volume attempts a more balanced and in-depth assessment in each of the policy areas than has hitherto been available. The gradually increasing base of available empirical data on the period after the reforms has been used in the studies, which provide thorough syntheses of the available research for Canada and Latin America.
Using various theoretical approaches, this book examines industrial relations, workers' compensation, occupational health, employment standards, training, and social assistance, measuring the impact of partisanship and globalization on policy-making in several areas. It is useful for those interested in the field of labour market policy.
In response to concerns that the educational system - from public schools through colleges, universities, and apprenticeship programs - cannot adequately prepare students for work in the new economy, Integrating School and Workplace Learning in Canada proposes alternation - a hybrid form of learning that, by combining experiential and cognitive learning skills, allows individuals to develop the relevant skills and intellectual capabilities to address and solve complex problems encountered in the workplace. Alternation involves not only a curricular balance between the theoretical and the practical but also two distinct venues for learning - the classroom and the workplace. The authors discuss cognitive and social learning, its implementation in a variety of settings, its role in smoothing the school/work transition process, and its potential to contribute to the knowledge and skills needed by the workforce. They bring a wide range of disciplinary perspectives to bear in their analyses of the principles and practices of alternation, providing historical, theoretical, and practical insights. Their analysis contributes to and extends the current debate and discussion surrounding necessary changes in our education and training practices.
Education systems operate in a world that is constantly evolving towards new equilibria, yet short-term crises may disrupt, accelerate or divert longer-term evolutions. This Framework for Responsiveness and Resilience in Education Policy aims to support policy makers to balance the urgent challenge of building eco-systems that adapt in the face of disruption and change (resilience), and the important challenge of navigating the ongoing evolution from industrial to post-industrial societies and economies (responsiveness).
