Literacy Newfoundland and Labrador

Making Required Skills Investments Go Further

Event | Posted: December 7, 2011

From OLES (Office of Literacy and Essential Skills)

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. (Ottawa time)

In 2003, the International Adult Literacy Skills Survey found that over 9 million working age Canadians (aged 16-65) had low literacy and essential skills – of which 5.9 million (65%) were employed.

Engaging employers in the essential skills dialogue is a key priority for OLES.

This webinar hopes to bring together a myriad of private sector stakeholders to discuss the importance of workplace essential skills in today’s knowledge-based economy, especially for populations who face particular literacy and essential skills challenges (such as Aboriginal communities, immigrants, and Official language minority communities), who will make up a significant part of the future labour force. Highlights of the webinar will include a presentation on the business case for investing in essential skills, a summary of OLES’ partnership with Industry Canada’s Canada Business Network, and an overview of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association’s Essential Skills through Safety and Health project.

The Essential Skills through Safety and Health is a national project focused on making explicit the Essential Skills of tasks associated with occupational health and safety (OHS) in the workplace.

There were several components to the project, including the development of a series of tools, models and resources that were piloted both face to face and online through Adobe Connect, delivered to 35 companies across Canada. In addition, the project created educational new media supports, a Trainer's Guide for teaching Essential Skills, A Beginner's Guide to OHS, and a qualitative research project identifying and comparing differences in notions of OHS risk among new Canadians. As well, five regional conferences were held across Canada to introduce employers to the methods and tools developed.

While workplace stakeholders will be a focus for this webinar in both subject matter and target audience, other people and organizations working in literacy and essential skills are welcome to participate in this event.



Who will be presenting?

Lindsey McIntosh is a Policy Analyst with the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills (OLES) at Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. Lindsey has been engaged in the literacy and essential skills field since joining the Department in 2007, and she is currently leading OLES' efforts in improving the essential skills of working Canadians by engaging employers in the essential skills dialogue. Lindsey has also worked on developing essential skills tools such as the Essential Skills Interview Assistant and the Writing, Working with Others and Continuous Learning Tip Sheets, negotiating large-scale Pan-Canadian partnership agreements, and developing strategic partnerships with private and public sector stakeholders to embed essential skills into established programming.

Prior to 2007, Lindsey worked for the Canada Revenue Agency in Communications, and graduated with a Commerce degree in Marketing and Human Resource Management from the University of Ottawa in 2005.

Johanna Faulk is the National Program Director for the Essential Skills through Safety and Health (ESSH), a two-year project led by Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) and funded by the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills, HRSDC, Government of Canada.

Johanna is a professional adult educator who has spent the past 20 years working as a senior training and development manager in aerospace manufacturing as well as in provincial government as a program manager for adult education and adult literacy/ESL (English as a Second Language) programming. Johanna has a keen understanding of how adults learn and she is dedicated to creating humane learning environments.

Johanna received her M.A. from Stanford University and her PhD. from the University of Alberta and joined CME in January 2010 to direct the ESSH project.

The presentations will take approximately 45 minutes, followed by a Question & Answer period of equal length. Separate English and French audio channels will be available throughout.



How do I Register For This Event?

If interested in access for this webinar, please send an e-mail by opening (right-clicking) the following link to let us know that you would like to receive access instructions: NC-OLES_WEBINARS-WEBINAIRES_DU_BACE-GD@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca. Please note this is an e-mail address, not a link to a web site. If the link does not open automatically, you may copy it into your address bar. If you are still having trouble, you are welcome to send an e-mail directly to alice.reismartins@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca. Please send an email to this same address if you think you may have any issues viewing the online PowerPoint presentations so that advanced copies may be sent to you.

Please note that access instructions will be sent out at least two days before the event.

Note: Individuals and organizations can participate in OLES Webinars from wherever they have access to a computer and a phone. Registration is free, and organizations are encouraged to attend in groups if they wish to share a computer and speaker phone.

Developed and hosted by NALD in collaboration with Literacy Newfoundland and Labrador.

This project is funded by the Government of Canada’s Office of Literacy and Essential Skills.