Annual General Meeting of the Toronto Traning Board

Please join us for The Annual General Meeting of the
The Toronto Training Board
"Keeping Your Balance: Managing Work and Life Responsibilities"

Greetings:
The office of Honourable Kathleen Wynne, Minister of Education (TBC)
Keynote Speaker:
Andrea Garson, Vice President, Human Resources, Workopolis

Thursday, September 27, 2007
6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m.

2nd Floor Gallery
Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen St. West
Toronto, ON M6J 1J6

Light refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP by September 18 to:
Saddaf Syed
Partnership Coordinator
Toronto Training Board
416.934.1653
syed@ttb.on.ca

Toronto Training Board's
Trends Opportunities and Priorities 2007- 2008 Consultation

You are invited to attend the
Toronto Training Board’s TOP’s consultation for 2007-2008.

October 3, 2007
10am-12pm
October 10, 2007
2pm-4pm
October 12, 2007
6pm-8pm

Location
Centre for Social Innovation
Alterna Boardroom
215 Spadina Avenue, Suite 400
Toronto, M5T 2C7

• Share information on key trends and issues in Toronto’s labour market
• Discuss Opportunities – Where are the jobs?
• Who are the workers?
• What are there issues/ barriers to employment?
• What strategies are being used to address labour market issues?
• What are the Priorities?

Light refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP by September 28, 2007 to
Saddaf Syed
Partnership Coordinator
Toronto Training Board
416.934.1653
syed@ttb.on.ca

Labour Market News

Labour Force Survey

The Daily
Statistics Canada
August 10, 2007

Employment in Canada was little changed in July, leaving growth so far in 2007 at 1.3%, similar to the growth rate in the first seven months of 2006. The unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percentage points to 6.0%, the lowest since 1974. Although Ontario's overall employment level was little changed in July, there were a few notable industry movements. Manufacturing employment was up an estimated 27,000 in July, the first significant increase in more than a year, with gains spread across several manufacturing industries. There were also gains in professional, scientific and technical services, while employment declined in educational services.

Where The Jobs Are

Toronto Sun
Linda White
August 22, 2007

According to the report, "Looking Ahead. A 10-Year Outlook for the Canadian Labour Market (2006-20015)" recently released by HRSDC, 65.9% of job openings resulting from expansion or retirements will be in management or in occupations requiring university, college or apprenticeship training.
Univeristy graduates stand to reap the highest rewards of the shift towards a knowledge-based economy and increased government spending in health care. Highly skilled occupations will acount for 70% of all new jobs created through 2015 - up 10% over the last decade. In contrast, employment growth in the lowest-skilled ocupations that require just on-the-job training, will be much weaker.Increasingly, Canada's workers will be well educated in the years to come, particularly as they replace less educated, older workers.

Immigrants

Newcomers Sidestep Pitfalls

Toronto Star
August 6, 2007
Nicholas Keung

A new federal program helps would-be immigrant professionals navigate the Canadian job market even before they leave their home countries.The program, dubbed CIIP (ciip.accc.ca), is funded by Ottawa and delivered by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges.The would-be newcomers to Canada in the skilled-worker class can now take "pre-arrival orientation" in Manila, Delhi and Hong Kong – and, starting this month, in Beijing, Gujarat and Punjab. Since its January inception, 1,000 skilled immigrants have voluntarily participated to learn about Canadian labour market trends, skills in demand in various regions, licensing procedures, and how to hook up with career bridging programs.Immigrants meet with counsellors at the overseas offices to devise a settlement plan while they're still waiting for medical and security clearance to immigrate, instead of wasting time and money catching up after they get to Canada.

Youth

Scholarships Open Door to Success for Toronto Youth

Canada News Wire
August 28, 2007

On August 30, about 82 Greater Toronto Area youth will get the jump on a brighter future through receiving scholarships valued at more than $150,000 from the Hope for Children Foundation. The Hope for Children Foundation Scholarship Program offers financial support to youth who were formerly in the care of the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto, and who have been accepted into a college, university or training course.
    "We know that education is key to liberating these youth from urban poverty or underemployment. Paying for college or university is an impossibility for many youth in care who lack the financial and emotional support of their parents,"said the Executive Director of Hope for Children Foundation.

Women

Trades Program Offers Lesson On Repairing Lives

George Brown pilot project turns at-risk women into in-demand skilled tradeswomen

Toronto Star
Daniel Girard
August 27, 2007

A pilot project, the eight-month course is one of 10 funded through a $4 million provincial initiative aimed at helping abused, at-risk and impoverished women achieve economic independence.The goal of the George Brown program is to train women in an in-demand skilled trade.With a budget of about $390,000, the program offers women tuition, books and subsidized transit passes for six months of courses at Casa Loma campus.The idea is to eliminate barriers to education, so the women can focus on completing their training and getting into the workforce, said the program co-ordinator and a part-time instructor at George Brown.

Education

Seneca Launches Faculty of Workforce Skills Development

Toronto Sun
David Chilton
August 22, 2007

There are plenty of academic upgrading programs and job skills training options available in the GTA, but they tend to be scattered across numerous schools and agencies. Seneca College has decided to address this lack of focus with the introduction of its new Faculty of Workforce Skills Development. The faculty is already at work, although its new dean says there will likely be an official launch some time in September. Adults, whether Canadian or newly arrived, youth, and internationally-trained professionals can use the services that the Faculty provides. The new faculty will also deliver employment-related training that includes re-employment services for international professionals, employment resource centres, the testing of essential workplace skills, Job Connect, The Mentoring Partnership and the Centre for Entrepreneurship.

Other News

Make Time for Leisure, Your Employer Will Thank You

Workopolis.com
Alexis Wise
July 30, 2007

It’s more than half way through the 2007 calendar year and many working Canadians have not yet used any of their holiday days. Are you one of them? Stress and health have been closely associated for years and any means of cutting through workplace stress is an important contributor to health and well-being. A Leger Marketing survey released recently illustrates clearly the many effects of workplace stress.

• Physical Impact: 53% of working Canadians say that they experience headaches, clenched jaws, indigestion, constipation or diarrhea, increased perspiration, and fatigue or insomnia due to workplace stress.
• Psychological Impact: 55% of working Canadians experience anxiety, irritability with co-workers, defensiveness, anger, mood swings, and feelings of helplessness or of being trapped due to workplace stress.
• Behavioural Impact: And 52% of working Canadians say stress in the workplace makes them impatient, causes them to procrastinate, makes them quick to argue or withdraw, or causes them to isolate themselves from others, neglect responsibility or perform poorly.

VOLUME 8
August 2007

Educating Health Workers: A Statistical Portrait 

Statistics Canada
Mary K. Allen, Rita Ceolin, Sylvie Ouellette, Johanne Plante and Chantal Vaillancourt
August 13, 2007

Using current major Statistics Canada data sources related to the education of Canadians, this publication presents some of what we currently know on educating health workers to begin to address some critical questions facing Canadians today: Does Canada have enough interested individuals with the right skills who want to work in health? Does it have the infrastructure, capacity, and effective education system to ensure an adequate supply of health workers to meet future health care demands? As such, the report is primarily comprised of information tables accompanied by some brief analysis intended to highlight broad findings that may guide the reader in interpreting the tables.

Labour Inputs To Non-Profit Organizations

Perspectives on Labour and Income
Statistics Canada
Leroy Stone and Hasheem Nouroz

More than 160,000 non-profit and voluntary institutions provide employment for about two million Canadians. These organizations constitute one of the faster growing sectors of the Canadian economy, accounting for 7% of gross domestic product in 2003. They come in a variety of forms and deliver goods and services in many areas. However, their use of labour in most cases differs radically from that of profit-oriented businesses. This study describes and quantifies the multiple labour inputs used by non-profits.

Life After High-Tech Downturn:

Perspectives on Labour and Income
Statistics Canada
Marc Frenette

During the 1990s, the high-tech sector expanded at a much greater rate than the rest of the economy, its employment eventually representing 4.5% of the workforce in 2000. Then came the meltdown in 2001 with its headlines of large-scale layoffs. Many were unable to find other jobs in the sector, and some moved to other cities. The article looks at the statistics behind the headlines, in particular the permanent layoff rates and earnings of high-tech workers compared with those in other industries.

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