Canada's Labour Market Training System

Bob Barnetson

• Publisher: AU Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781771992435
• Topic: Politique et relations internationales
• Subtopic: Relations de travail et relations industrielles

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.

CHAPTER ONE


Canada’s Training System in Outline

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

Define labour-market training and explain why it occurs.

Identify how the interests of training stakeholders converge and conflict.

Define access to, control of, and benefit from training and explain why these dimensions are analytically important.

Fear of the economic consequences of a skill and labour shortage is a recurring theme in Canadian newspapers and television reports. For example, a 2016 report by the Information and Communication Technology Council warned, “If Canada does not address the talent and skills gap, it could cost the economy billions of dollars in lost productivity, tax revenues, and gross domestic product.”1 The remedies proposed by this industry lobby group are typical and include mandatory computer science classes for school children, the reduction of barriers to labour force entry for women and other traditionally excluded workers, and tax breaks to encourage employer-sponsored training.2

That same year, the Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council predicted a shortfall of 17,000 farm workers in the prairie grain-and-oilseed industry by 2025. This projected labour shortage could lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost product sales, opined the industry lobby group. Its proposed solution to the aging farm labour force was to allow prairie farmers better access to temporary foreign workers.3 Neither report engaged with the rather obvious possibility that employers providing better wages and working conditions might help attract workers to these industries and thereby reduce or avoid the projected shortages.

Many commentators question the accuracy of employer claims about skill and labour shortages, noting that they are often self-serving and based on poor evidence.4 But, faced with seemingly endless corporate hand-wringing, the media tends to focus on laying blame for these shortages. Governments and educational institutions are characterized as out of touch with the needs of employers. And students and workers are said to be too ill-informed, naïve, or lazy to get the training they need to be competitive in the labour market. Mostly ignored in this discourse is the low and continually declining level of employer-sponsored training.

The overall impression left by these discussions is that the Canadian labour-market training system is broken because it is unable to supply an adequate pool of appropriately skilled workers to industry.5 This book examines the key forms of labour-market training in Canada and asks whether this criticism of the system is warranted and true. A good place to start is asking whether a coherent and functional training system is a reasonable expectation for anyone to have.

Systems and Metaphors

We often reflexively consider a system as a collection of parts that operate together to achieve a goal. For example, a car’s subsystems—the engine, transmission, and steering—all work together so we can get where we want to go. If we examine the four main components of Canada’s training system—post-secondary education (PSE), government training and immigration policies, workplace training, and community education—through the lens of this mechanical metaphor, we’ll see that Canada does not have an integrated training system. Rather, Canada’s training “system” is a collection of mismatched parts that are constantly changing and often working towards different (and sometimes conflicting) goals. Not surprisingly, this training “system” seems to fall short of its putative goal of an adequately trained workforce.

So, does that mean Canada’s labour-market training system is broken? Maybe. But it might also mean that thinking about the Canadian training system as a machine is wrong-headed. There are many other metaphors for systems besides the organization as machine. For example, we might think about organizations as biological organisms, which have needs and imperatives of their own. Or we might view organizations as cultures, which have developed specific ways of seeing the world and of behaving within it. In short, the lens through which we choose to view the world affects what we see, what we don’t, and what behaviour and outcomes we expect and desire.6

This book uses a political metaphor to understand the Canadian labour-market training system. A political system is one wherein groups of actors seek to advance their interests. These interests sometimes converge and sometimes conflict. Where there is conflict, different groups will seek to exert power in order to achieve their goals (often at the expense of other groups). Considering how power and differing interests shape labour-market training in Canada reveals that there is an underlying logic to the existing training system. Over the six chapters of this book, we’ll see that Canada’s seemingly ad hoc and dysfunctional training “system” serves to stabilize and replicate a class-stratified social and economic system.

Stabilization and replication of a system riven with conflict can occur in a number of ways. Sometimes a government will intervene with legislation or money in order to prevent conflict or disruption. Other times, actors may use rhetorical strategies to manage discontent. For example, employers may assert that workers can better their lives by undertaking training. This draws attention away from other ways workers could improve their lives, such as by seeking social, economic, or political change. Prioritizing social stability and replication may sometimes interfere with the training system’s ability to ensure there is an adequately trained labour force. For example, allowing students to choose the post-secondary program they want to enroll in (a reasonable expectation by students in a democratic society) may result in skill mismatches. The training system’s components and how they interact with one another reflect that training—like most other aspects of employment in Canada—is contested terrain.

Training, Education, and Learning

Training is the process of intentionally acquiring, modifying, or reinforcing knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) as well as values and preferences. The intentionality of training distinguishes it from the broader process of learning. That is to say, we undertake training with the explicit goal of learning something and, thereby, becoming more capable. Of course, the world isn’t as neat and tidy as that. For example, we may go seek out information about how to paint a landscape and practise doing so. During this training, we may also learn other things unintentionally (or even unconsciously), such as how the colour of objects appears to become lighter as the distance to them increases.

The terms “training” and “education” are often used interchangeably. Both training and education entail acquiring, modifying, or reinforcing KSAs. So is there a difference? Perhaps not. Yet, imagine how your expectations might differ between two classes, one advertised as “sex education” and the other as “sex training.” Clearly, there is some sort of widely held qualitative difference between training and education.7 This difference centres on the tendency of training to develop KSAs for immediate use and perhaps with a greater vocational (or performance) focus. This stands in contrast with the longer-term, intellectual, and perhaps intrinsic-reward focus of education. That said, the dividing line between training and education is unclear, and the terms are often used interchangeably.

There are many forms of training. We may take a class, watch an online video, or do hands-on work with tools or machinery. We might also practise what we have learned, either on our own or with others. Indeed, training often entails cycling back and forth between learning something new and incorporating that learning into our daily practice. Training is also often framed as something that is done to others. For example, an employer may train a worker in the correct operation of a cash register. But we can also train ourselves. For example, confronted with a flat tire, we may figure out how put the spare tire on. In doing so, we have (quite intentionally) learned a new skill. This example also reveals that training doesn’t just occur in formal situations, such as a classroom or training program with formal learning objectives and curriculum. In fact, training can occur almost anywhere—the key characteristics of training are (1) an intentional effort to (2) improve our (or others’) capabilities (3) through learning.

The analysis in this book looks at Canada’s overall labour-market training system. Labour-market training is often defined fairly narrowly. For example, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines labour-market training as follows: “Labour market training measures are those undertaken for reasons of labour market policy, other than special programmes for youth and the disabled. Expenditures include both course costs and subsistence allowances to trainees, when such are paid. Subsidies to employers for enterprise training are also included, but not employer’s own expenses.”8

The OECD’s definition focuses on programming provided by the government (or “the state”) to operationalize labour-market policy. In this definition, apprenticeship programming is labour-market training because the state funds training at colleges and technical institutes as well as financially supports apprentices during training through the Employment Insurance (EI) system. Yet training offered by employers, trade unions, or professional regulatory bodies would be excluded from consideration.

Looking at the entire Canadian labour-market training system—including post-secondary education, government training and immigration policy, employer workplace training, and community-based education—provides a broader picture that allows us to better understand the interrelationships in the system. For example, as we saw in the opening vignette of this chapter, employer groups often seek to address skill and worker shortages via changes in immigration policy, rather than by offering training or improving the terms and conditions of work. For this reason, this book broadly defines labour-market training as policies, programs, and activities intended to result in an adequate number of appropriately trained workers.

Training, Employment, and the Labour Market

In considering the operation of the Canadian training system, it is important to have a basic understanding of Canadian employment relationships and the labour market. Employment—hiring a worker to do a job—is one way for employers to get work done. There are other ways to accomplish work. The use of slaves was common in the United States until only 150 years ago, for example, and Indigenous peoples in Canada have often been compelled by the federal government to work in order to receive income support.9 Employers might also use volunteers or a group of workers might get together to form a co-operative. And ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• List of Figures and Tables
• Preface
• 1. Canada’s Training System in Outline
• 2. Post-Secondary Education and the Apprenticeship Training System
• 3. Government Training and Immigration Policy
• 4. Workplace Training and Learning
• 5. Community-Based Education and Training
• 6. Reproducing Patterns of Advantage and Disadvantage through Training
• Glossary
• Bibliography