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The informal learning practices of bank branch workers were examined in a study of a major Canadian bank. The study included ethnographic fieldwork and secondary analysis of a national survey of branch workers' learning practices during the introduction of a new financial services software system. Activity theory was used to examine workers' informal learning practices as situated and to trace the shift learning at the bank branch during the 1990s from a process based on a largely informal training approach to an increasingly formalized self-study approach. The study established that the bank branch workers continued to rely heavily on collective and individual informal learning practices to perform their day-to-day work, adjust to the introduction of new processes and technologies, and cope with stress even though the restructuring of work processes and learning that had occurred within the bank left the workers with diminishing time for study and learning. The study resulted in nine recommendations, including the following: (1) allocate at least 1 hour of on-the-job time per week for collective and individual learning; (2) create a learning environment within the bank's branches; (3) recognize, build on, and provide compensation for workers' informal learning activities; and (4) consult regularly and systematically with branch staff to identify learning and support needs. (Contains 46 references.) (MN)

Canadians' employment and working patterns were examined by analyzing the 1998 survey called New Approaches to Lifelong Learning and other recent surveys by Statistics Canada. "Work" was defined as comprising household labor, community volunteer activities, and paid employment, and "learning" was defined as comprising informal learning activities, initial formal schooling, and adult education courses and programs. The data indicated that Canadian adults generally spent as much time in unpaid household and community work as in paid employment. Canadians were extensively involved in learning throughout their lives. According to their self-reports, Canadian adults devoted an average of 15 hours each week to informal learning activities related to their paid employment, household duties, volunteer community work, and other general interests. Those in the labor force averaged 6 hours each week in job-related informal learning pursuits. A generally positive association between the amount of time people spend in paid employment, household labor, and community work and the time spent in work-related informal learning was found. Employment-related informal learning was more extensive than course-based training across nearly all employment statuses and occupational groups. At least 20% of the employed labor force saw itself as having skill levels exceeding those required by their jobs. (Contains 27 tables and 152 references.) (MN)

A study analyzed the schooling, further adult course participation, and informal learning of organized and unorganized workers in different occupational classes across Canada. Data were obtained from the first Canadian national survey of 1,562 adults' informal learning practices, conducted in 1998, and field notes and interview transcripts drawn from participants in the auto plant case study of the Working Class Learning Strategies project conducted at five union locals in southern Ontario in 1995-2000. The study found that unionized and non-unionized industrial and service workers in Canada are increasingly highly educated, increasingly participating in adult education courses and devoting substantial amounts of their time to informal learning activities outside organized education and training programs. In addition, the study found that working people are generally engaged collectively and individually in an extensive array of employment-related and other informal learning activities that are neither fully recognized by most employers or union leaders nor given prior learning credit by educational institutions. The study concluded that underestimation of the current range and depth of workers' knowledge and skills by union leaders represents a significant barrier to further growth of the labor movement. Recommendations for strategies to facilitate union growth are suggested, based on what has worked most effectively in these locals of differing general organizational strength and demographic profiles. (KC)

Young people from lower class origins continue to face major barriers to university education in Canada. This paper documents both substantial inter-generational class mobility and continuing inequalities in formal educational attainments by class origins. While Canada now has the world's higher educational attainments in its youth cohort and has experienced rapid growth in adult education participation as well, those from professional/managerial families remain more than three times as likely to attain a degree as those from working class origins. There is also mounting evidence that escalating financial costs are again increasing the relative class inequalities in university education. These large and increasing class inequalities are compared with the much more equitable and extensive participation in informal learning found in a recent national survey, as well as the underemployment of working class people in the Canadian job structure. In light of these educational and economic inequalities, needs-based student subsidies and democratic workplace reforms are seen as major means to address persistent discrimination against the learning capacities and aspirations for university education of those from lower class origins. (Contains 4 tables and 37 references.) (Author)

The extent and distribution of self-reported learning activities in the current Canadian adult population was estimated on the basis of data collected during a 1998 telephone survey of a sample of 1,562 Canadian adults. Random digital dialing was used to give all provinces, households, and individuals within households an equal chance of selection. The response rate was 64% of all eligible households. The interviews averaged 32 minutes, and the data were weighted by known population characteristics of age, sex, and educational attainment to ensure profiles representative for Canada as a whole. More than 95% of those interviewed were involved in some form of explicit informal learning activities that they considered significant. On average, respondents devoted approximately 15 hours per week to informal learning (versus the Canadian average of approximately 4 hours per week to organized education courses). The most commonly cited areas of informal learning activities were as follows: computer skills related to employment; communications skills through voluntary community volunteer work; home renovations and cooking skills in household work; and general interest learning about health issues. It was recommended that those shaping Canada's educational, economic, and other social policies give more explicit consideration to Canadian adults' mostly informal learning practices. (Contains 29 references) (MN)

Recent Canadian opinion surveys indicate that the public has great faith in Canadian educational institutions, is much more inclined to want student-centered educational services restored to previous levels than to want any major structural changes, is concerned about rising tuition costs for postsecondary education, and expresses strong demand for more postsecondary and adult education. (SV)

Contrary to pervasive assumptions about the need for lifelong learning, U.S. and Canadian adults' collective learning efforts far outpace workplace requirements. Underemployment has several dimensions: the talent-use gap, structural unemployment, involuntary reduced employment, credential gap, performance gap, and subjective underemployment. Substantial economic reforms are needed, not more emphasis on lifelong learning. Contains 92 references. (Author/SV)

Reexamination of national Canadian surveys and Ontario surveys, 1979-1993, revealed that confidence and satisfaction ratings for public education followed a wave-like pattern over time for both general public opinion and parental attitudes. In contrast, corporate executives showed declining confidence in schools and strongly supported neoconservative policies of fiscal austerity and use of market mechanisms. Contains 29 references. (SV)

A public opinion survey in Ontario shows that a majority of respondents support increased spending on education; provincewide testing; open access to advanced courses and higher education; and greater involvement of parents, teachers, and students in determining educational policy. Although respondents support comparative testing, they do not support "test-driven" education. (KS)

Results of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education 1982 Survey, intended primarily to offer ongoing profiles of mass attitudes on major issues of current educational reform, are reported. In addition to documenting trends in public support for general curricular and financing options, the survey focuses on attitudes towards alternative ways of relating schooling to the work world. The results of 1050 interviews with adults are reported in seven chapters: (1) Public Satisfaction and Educational Funding; (2) Accessibility of Educational Services; (3) Educational Decisions: Who and When?; (4) Perceptions of the Labour Market: Education, Skill Requirements, and Unemployment; (5) Preparing for Work; Preferred Curricular Objectives for the High School; (6) Linking the High School and the Workplace; and (7) Conclusion: Faith in Education and Economic Crisis. Fifty-four tables accompany the text. The first appendix contains information on sampling procedures, and the second appendix contains the survey questionnaire. (CJ)

This survey involved a representative sample of 1,046 adults who were interviewed, and a special sample of corporate executives (127) who responded to a mailed questionnaire. Chapter 1 presents findings on the Ontario public's general assessments of the quality of high school education and their dispositions toward public expenditures on various levels and types of education. In Chapter 2, views on the accessibility of services and equality of opportunity in education are examined, with special attention to dimensions of university restructuring. Chapter 3, on educational decision making, deals with public preferences about who should have most control over major activities at the high school level. Chapter 4 examines the public's curriculum priorities for Ontario high schools, both in terms of general objectives and specific required subjects. In Chapter 5, opinions on several aspects of the relationship between schooling and employment are summarized. The final chapter looks at participation in, and support for, the public funding of various types of adult education. Appendices include information on the survey procedures and population, and the survey questionnaire. (JD)