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In 2017, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and Root Solutions, with funding from the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, created the "Turning the Page on Campus Paper Use" initiative to assist higher education institutions in developing and implementing paper reduction behavior change projects. "Turning the Page: A Behavior Change Toolkit for Reducing Paper Use" draws upon real world experiences from the Turning the Page initiative as well as other paper reduction campaigns. The concepts, concrete examples, and tools in this guide will empower practitioners to more effectively target paper consumption behaviors at their institutions. Although this guide focuses on tackling paper reduction efforts at higher education institutions, the advice and examples provided can be applied by any organization looking to foster more sustainable behaviors. The hope is that this guide gives the reader the background, inspiration, and confidence to ideate and implement the kinds of evidence-based behavior campaigns that can result in transformational impact at their organization. [This report was produced by Root Solutions. Funding was provided by the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund.]

This document examines the major issues and implications related to the development of quality guidelines for adult literacy programs in Ontario (Canada) and presents a framework for discussing issues related to quality guidelines and their formulation. Discussed in the first section are the following topics: the place of quality issues/guidelines in the Ontario government's 1986 Plan for Adult Basic Literacy and the Ontario Ministry of Education's Adult Literacy Policy and Evaluation Project; the role of learners, service providers, and funders in the provision of adult literacy programs in Ontario; the purpose and scope of quality guidelines; and trends in the development and use of quality guidelines in the United Kingdom, other Canadian provinces, and the United States. The remaining 60% of the document is a discussion guide for stimulating thought and discussion about quality guidelines in adult literacy programming. It includes a discussion format and seven elements of quality in literacy programs (community focus, access to services, learner-centeredness, appropriate and effective service delivery, equity of outcomes, integration, and accountability). An accountability framework summarizing the elements of the quality guidelines consultation is included. (MN)

Taking a gap year--a break between high school and university--is becoming increasingly popular with Australian students. In terms of length and purpose, the traditional notion of a gap year being a year off between school and university has expanded considerably over time. For the purposes of the analysis reported in this paper, a person who takes a gap year is defined as "an individual who commenced university one to two years after completing Year 12. This includes those who accept and defer their university placement for one to two years" (Curtis, Mlotkowski & Lumsden 2012). Highlights of this report include: (1) In Australia the incidence of taking a gap year has increased from 10% in the period 1999-2000 to 24% in 2009-10; (2) The top four primary activities undertaken by gap students in 2009-10 were work (51%), full-time study leading to a non-university qualification (10%), other study (6%), and travel (6%); (3) Characteristics of gap-takers include: (a) being academically less inclined than non-gap-takers; (b) living in regional locations when at school; (c) having English speaking backgrounds; (d) being employed when in Year 12 at school; and (e) being less likely to receive Youth Allowance payments while at school; (4) In their first year of university, gap-takers are more likely to study in the areas of education and creative arts; and (5) Those who don't take a gap year are substantially more likely at age 24 to be employed full-time and to work in professional occupations than gap-takers. Much of this difference can be attributed to the fact that, in terms of their careers, gap-takers are a year or two behind those who don't take a gap year. The data do not allow the authors to measure the longer-term outcomes of both groups because the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) stops at age 25. Appended are: (1) Gap year definitions; and (2) LSAY cohorts sample sizes and durations. (Contains 13 tables.) [For "Bridging the Gap: Who Takes a Gap Year and Why? Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth. Research Report," see ED533077.]

This report reviews the use of loans for learning in 33 European countries and analyses the schemes in eight selected Member States: France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Finland, Sweden and the UK. The analysis shows that loan schemes vary considerably across Europe in terms of types and levels of learning covered, conditions of access, repayment and governance. Some loans aim to increase participation in learning in general, while others are designed to promote equity. The report attempts to assess the selected loans and discusses their strengths and weaknesses and determinants of performance, while considering if a given scheme operates on a large scale or targets niche groups. The evaluation results provide a basis for identifying good practice principles for designing and implementing loans. Policy recommendations are formulated based on these findings. Annexed are: (1) Methodology; (2) Key terms and definitions; (3) Information on countries/schemes selected for in-depth analysis; (4) Proposed typologies of VET loan schemes; (5) Tables and figures; (6) Tosmana truth tables; (7) Questionnaires; (8) Basic characteristics of non-European loan schemes. (Contains 37 tables, 5 figures, 20 boxes and 33 footnotes.)

This study tested the amount of value added to critical and communication skills by the university experience using a strategy that compared the skills of entering and graduating students at York University (Ontario). The study involved, first, identifying skills that might be improved over the course of a university education; second, developing survey questions that measured skills for entering and graduating students at four faculties; and third, performing covariance analysis of survey results for entering and graduating students. Data were generated by three questionnaires, with response rates ranging from 55 to 58 percent for two surveys in the fall of 1995 to 58 percent one conducted in the summer of 1996. Eight tables detail skill categories and topics; list characteristics of survey respondents; correlate skills and grades for entering students, for graduating students, by gender, by ethnic origin, and by home language; and provide Z-scores to assess value added for entering and graduating students. Overall, graduating students were found to have better-developed skills than entering students. The paper also focuses on the rationale for the relatively cost-effective research design. (Contains 30 references.) (CH)

The extent to which Canadian employers recognize the informally acquired first languages of immigrants and aboriginal persons as prior learning qualifications for formal employment in the business, government, and education sectors was examined through a survey of organizations across Ontario. Personalized questionnaires were mailed to a sample of 140 Ontario organizations, as follows: 32 businesses (half randomly selected and half purposively selected); 71 colleges, universities, and school boards; and 37 municipal, provincial, and federal government agencies and psychiatric hospitals. Of the 140 questionnaires mailed out, 79 (56.4%) were returned. Although 88.6% of the organizations indicated that they would benefit from employing staff fluent in languages in addition to English or French, only 30.4% were actually actively recruiting such multilingual employees. Private organizations were more likely to recruit multilingual individuals and educational institutions were least likely to do so (52.9% and 25.7%, respectively). The methods used to evaluate potential bilingual employees' language proficiency were as follows: interviews (25.8%); employer references (18.6%); and formal qualifications and personal references (13.4%). Educational institutions used formal qualifications to assess language fluency much more often than other types of organizations did (20%, 10%, and 7.6% for academic institutions, private organizations, and public organizations, respectively). (Contains 22 references.) (MN)

This guide is designed as a community-based resource for women who are interested in developing leadership skills in group facilitation, community building, and community action. It provides an integrated feminist anti-oppression learning framework that links social justice issues and the questions of race, gender, class, and all other forms of marginalization to the question of how women learn. The guide includes six workshops that emphasize the connections between learning and action that allow women to develop their consciousness of the actions required to bring about necessary change in their lives as women. Introductory materials discuss the research that lead to this guide and suggestions for conducting the workshops, including useful tools for building group processes. Each session outline consists of some or all of these components: check-in, debriefing, informational materials, warm-up exercise, exercises, and closure. Sessions are (1) women's experiences are the basis of learning; (2) facilitating group processes; (3) learning strategies (4) gender bias in the law; (5) funding; and (6) outreach and organizing. (YLB)

The question of whether inequality in skills explains inequality of earnings across advanced countries was examined through a review of data from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), which examined the prose, document, and quantitative literacy skills of adults in 12 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. In all countries, jobless individuals tended to have lower skill levels than workers. The distribution of earnings and the distribution of skills varied widely among advanced countries, with the major English-speaking countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, having much greater inequality in both earnings and skills than continental European Union countries. According to data from the IALS, skill inequality explains only approximately 7% of the cross-country difference in earnings inequality. The dispersion of earnings in the United States was found to be larger in narrowly defined skill groups than was the dispersion of earnings for European workers overall. In the United States, IALS test scores rose substantially with movement up the income scale, with the increase in scores averaging 17 points per income quintile. The bulk of cross-country differences in earnings inequality were found to occur within skill groups rather than between them. (The bibliography contains 20 references. Twelve tables/figures are included.) (MN)

A study provided extensive statistics and documentation of Canadian adults' work and learning activities. The study included statistics for household labor and community volunteer activities as well as paid employment. Learning activities included both formal course work and informal learning, as well as on-the-job training. Data sources were the 1998 National Survey of Learning and Work by the Research Network on New Approaches to Lifelong Learning (NALL); estimates of the extent of unpaid household and community work; the Adult Education and Training Survey; the 1996 census; the National Survey of Giving, Volunteering, and Participating; and the General Social Survey. Findings of the study included the following: (1) in contrast to the concerns about Canadians' need to become"lifelong learners," the study found that most Canadians are already extensively engaged in learning but that the needs for higher-level job skills has been greatly exaggerated; (2) in terms of work, Canadian adults are now spending about as much time in unpaid household and community work as they are in paid employment; (3) despite the rhetoric about a "knowledge-based economy," the study found only a gradual upgrading of job skill requirements, and knowledge workers still comprise a small minority of the labor force; (4) as a result of the increased amount of learning by adults and the slower increase of job requirements, many Canadians find themselves underemployed; and (5) instead of focusing efforts on further education and training for Canadians, the society and government should address major paid work reforms in order to prevent underemployment from becoming one of the major social problems of the 21st century. (Contains 160 references.) (KC)

The combination of work and study has been hailed as crucial to ensure that youth develop the skills required on the labour market so that transitions from school to work are shorter and smoother. This paper fills an important gap in availability of internationally-comparable data. Using the 2012 Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), it draws a comprehensive picture of work and study in 23 countries/regions. Crucially, it decomposes the total share of working students by the context in which they work (VET [vocational education and training], apprenticeships or private arrangements) and assesses the link between field of study and students' work. The paper also assesses how the skills of students are used in the workplace compared to other workers and identifies the socio-demographic factors and the labour market institutions that increase the likelihood of work and study. Finally, while it is not possible to examine the relationship between work and study and future labour market outcomes at the individual level, some aggregate correlations are unveiled.