The Increasing Underutilization of Education and Workbased Learning in the Global Economy RESEARCH F

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The Increasing Underutilization of Education and
Work-based Learning in the Global Economy
RESEARCH FORUM FOR RESEARCHERS AND ACADEMICS
2017 The Workplace University of Waterloo,
Sunday, October 14, 2007

• D. W. LIVINGSTONE
• Canada Research Chair in Lifelong Learning and
  Work,
• Head, Centre for the Study of Education and
  Work,Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  of theUniversity of Toronto

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abstract
The Increasing Underutilization of Education
And Work-based Learning in the Global Economy
There is mounting survey and case study
evidence that employees in Canada, with the
highest levels of post-secondary education
completion in the world,,, are not being enabled
to use much of their relevant skill and knowledge
in paid workplaces as now constituted. The
intensification of paid work may be increasing in
terms of longer hours and greater expected
effort. But, work design (the distribution of
employment time, restricted formal job
requirements, constrained authority and limited
autonomy in many jobs) inhibits and undermines
the creative use of capacities of growing numbers
of well qualified workers. There appears to be
both increasing underemployment of formal
educational qualifications as well as
underutilization of actual working knowledge.
Findings from the SSHRC sponsored research
network on the Changing Nature of Work and
Lifelong Learning (www.wallnetwork.ca) are used
to document these claims and suggest
alternatives.
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Centre for the Study of Education and Work

• The Centre for the Study of Education and Work
  (CSEW) brings together academics, labour
  educators and community partners to understand
  and enrich the often undervalued informal and
  formal learning of working people.
• The CSEW develops research and teaching programs
  on learning and work. It promotes policy
  initiatives and public events connected to both
  the paid and unpaid workplace, in traditional and
  new media for learningwww.learningwork.ca

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WALL SURVEYChanging Nature of Work and Lifelong
Learning

• Canadian Research Network established by SSHRC
  under Collaborative Research Initiatives on the
  New Economy www.wallnetwork.ca
• Includes 2004 national survey of 9,063 randomly
  selected respondents over 18 on many issues of
  working conditions and adult learning
• Study Builds on research completed by New
  Approaches to Lifelong Learning Research Network
  www.nall.ca
• This survey was conducted as part of the The
  Changing Nature of Work and Lifelong Learning in
  the New Economy National and Case Study
  Perspectives, a research network
  (www.wallnetwork.ca) supported by the Social
  Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
  Canada from 2003 to 2007.

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Expanded Definitions of Learning and Work
Learning involves the gaining of knowledge and
skill or achieving understanding anytime and
anywhere through individual and group processes.
It includes formal schooling, and further or
continuing adult education, as well as informal
education or training and non-taught
self-directed or collective informal learning. No
account of lifelong learning can be complete
without considering peoples informal learning
activities. Work is any activity directed
toward making or doing something, including paid
employment, unpaid housework and community
volunteer work. No account of work can be
complete without considering unpaid work.
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Forms of Activity and Learning
Source Livingstone, 2003.
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PRESENTATION outline
1. LEARNING CONDITIONS 2. WORKING
CONDITIONS 3. Learning work relations 4.
ALTERNATIVES

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Research Method

• The empirical analysis presents profiles of
  the learning practices of Canadian adults
  based on a country-wide survey (N 9,063
  respondents) on the Changing Nature of Work
  and Lifelong Learning, conducted in 2004.
• The survey provides information about the
  formal and informal learning activities of
  adults over 18. Participation patterns are
  analyzed for five-year age cohorts from 18
  to over 80, as well as for those in
  different occupational class locations
  (large/small employers, self-employed,
  professional employees, managers,
  supervisors, service workers, industrial
  workers).

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• 1.
• LEARNING
• CONDITIONS

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• 1. LEARNING CONDITIONS
• VAST MAJORITY BELIEVE HIGHER EDUCATION NOW
  NEEDED
• HIGHEST POST-SECONDARY COMPLETIONS IN WORLD
• LOWER ADULT EDUCATION COURSE PARTICIPATION
• EXTENSIVE WORKPLACE AND GENERAL INFORMAL
  LEARNING
• FORMAL EDUCATION AND INFORMAL LEARNING NOT MUCH
  RELATED
• OCCUPATIONAL CLASSES VARY GREATLY IN FORMAL
  EDUCATION, LESS SO IN ADULT EDUCATION, VERY
  LITTLE IN INFORMAL LEARNING

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• Perceived education needs for youth

Source WALL Survey, 2004
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Participation in in Post-secondary
EducationCanada, 1961-2004
Canada experienced rapid growth in the proportion
of adults with post-secondary (college and
university) certification from the 1960s to the
1990s and now leads the world (Council of
Ministers of Education, 2005).
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Post-Secondary Education Completion () 25-29
Age Group, Canada, 1961-2004
Sources 1961 Census of Canada (1963) Table 102
1966 Lagace (1968) Table C3 1971-2001 Special
tabulations from census data files. UT Data
Library 1998 Council of Ministers of Education
(2000) WALL 2004 Special tabulations
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Participation in Adult Education Canada,
1961-2004
Participation levels in adult education courses
and workshops (excluding students registered in
degree/diploma programs) showed exceptional
growth from 4 1961 to 35 the early 1990s
(Statistics Canada, 2001). Government surveys
found some decline in general adult
participation rates in the late 1990s but
increases in job training courses alone from 29
percent to 35 percent from 1997 to 2003 (Peters,
2004). National surveys by NALL and WALL found
increase to 40 in 1998 and 42 in 2004.
Available evidence suggests that Canadian
further education participation has grown over
the past two generations to more than ten times
the 1961 rate. But participation remains
significantly lower than that of most Nordic
countries with more fully developed institutional
provisions (Statistics Canada, 2001b Desjardins,
Rubenson and Milana, 2006).
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Adult Education Course Participation Canada,
1961-2004
Sources Dominion Bureau of Statistics, 1963
Statistics Canada, 1995 Statistics Canada,1997
Statistics Canada, 2001 NALL, 1998 WALL, 2004.
Excludes students registered in degree/diploma
programs
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Informal Learning (Average Hours per Week)
Canadian Adults, 1998-2004
Sources NALL Survey, 1998 WALL Survey,
2004. Excludes students registered in
degree/diploma programs
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Topics of Job-related Informal Learning
Employed Labour Force Participating in Informal
Learning, Canada, 1998-2004
Source WALL Survey, 2004.
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Formal Educational Attainment BY Adult Education
Courses and Informal Learning
Sources NALL Survey, 1998 WALL Survey, 2004.
Including current students.
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Formal Educational Attainment BY Adult Education
Courses and Informal Learning
1998
2004


Sources NALL Survey, 1998 WALL Survey, 2004.
Including current students.
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Age by Participation in Further Education and
Informal Learning, 1998-2004
Average hours exclude those reporting no
informal learning.
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• 2.
• EMPLOYMENT
• CONDITIONS

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• 2. EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS
• LONGER HOURS, MORE OVERTIME, MORE TEMPORARY
  HOURS
• MORE ORGANIZATIONAL RESTRUCTURING
• DOWNSIZING
• MULTI-SKILLING
• NON-STANDARD WORK
• OVERTIME

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Paid Work Hours
There was an increase in time devoted to paid
employment during 1998-2004, from an average of
38 to 40 hours per week. The proportion of the
active labour force employed for more than 50
hours a week rose from around 15 to around 20.
The participation rate in paid employment
reached about 68 percent of the working age
population, the highest rate on record (compare
Statistics Canada, 2004).
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Usual Weekly Paid Hours Canada, 1976-2004
Sources 1976 and 1993 Advisory Group on Working
Time and the Distribution of Work (1994, p. 17),
all figures drawn from Statistics Canada Labour
Force Surveys WALL Survey, 2004.
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Distribution of Paid Work HoursEmployed Labour
Force (), Canada, 1998-2004
Sources 1976 and 1993 Advisory Group on Working
Time and the Distribution of Work (1994, p. 17),
figures from Statistics Canada Labour Force
Surveys WALL Survey, 2004.
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OCCUPATIONAL class by DESIGN WORK ALL OR MOST OF
THE TIME
Canadian Wage and Salary Earners, 1983-2004
Source Canadian Class Structure Survey,
1983. Source WALL National Survey of
Learning and Work, 2004.
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OCCUPATIONAL CLASS BY GREAT DEAL OF THOUGHT AND
ATTENTION REQUIRED Canadian Wage and
Salary Earners, 1983-2004
Source Canadian Class Structure Survey,
1983. Source WALL National Survey of
Learning and Work, 2004.
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OCCUPATIONAL CLASS BY ORGANIZATIONAL
DECISION-MAKING ROLE Canadian Wage and Salary
Earners, 1983-2004
Source Canadian Class Structure Survey,
1983. Source WALL National Survey of
Learning and Work, 2004.
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Workplace Organizational Change in the Last 5
Years
Source WALL Survey, 2004.
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• 3.
• LEARNING-WORK RELATIONS

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• 3. LEARNING-WORK RELATIONS
• LOWEST FORMAL EDUCATION, HIGHEST UNEMPLOYMENT
• UNDEREMPLOYMENT OF QUALIFIED WORKERS GREATER THAN
  UNDERQUALIFICATION
• INCREASING FORMAL EDUCATION COMPLETION AND
  UNDEREMPLOYMENT ACROSS OCCUPATIONAL CLASSES
• GLOBAL LEADER IN ADVANCED FORMAL EDUCATION
  COMPLETION, LAGGARD IN WORKPLACE INNOVATION

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Educational Attainment and Unemployment Rates ()
Sources WALL Survey, 2004. Currently employed,
25-64 years old, non full-time students.
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Job Entry Educational Requirement by Occupational
Class, Employees, CANADA, 1983-2004
Source Canadian Class Structure Survey,
1983. Source WALL National Survey of
Learning and Work, 2004.
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Forms of Underemployment
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Correspondence of Formal Educational Attainment
and Job Entry credentials Canada 1983-2004
Sources Canadian Class Structure Survey, 1983
NALL Survey, 1998 WALL Survey, 2004.
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Correspondence of Formal Educational Attainment
and Job Entry QualificationCanada, 1983-2004
Sources Canadian Class Structure Survey, 1983
NALL Survey, 1998 WALL Survey, 2004.
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Occupational Class by Post-secondary Completion,
Further Education, and Incidence of Job-Related
Informal Learning CANADA, 1998-2004
Average hours per week are calculated as mean
of those doing informal learning. N too small
for reliable estimate.
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Educational Attainment and Credential
Underutilization AND Occupational Class
Employees, 1983-2004
Source 1983 Canadian Class Structure Survey,
1983 2004 WALL, 2004. Credential
underutilization is calculated by comparing
educational attainment with respondents
estimation of the amount of education normally
required for entry to their job. Post-sec
stands for post-secondary credential.
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Number of granted patents And average years of
schooling
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Sources Human Development Report 2001, UNDP,
2001 Human Development Report 2006, UNDP, 2006
World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO,
2006.
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4. Alternatives
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Economic AlternativesSource Livingstone, 2004.
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Some Current Job Design and Training Options

• Job Design
• Paid Work Redistribution (less 50 hour jobs,
  more hours and benefits for lt30 hour jobs)
• Real Democratized Technical Design and Social
  Authority (participatory design, co-determined
  decision-making)
• Flex-time Scheduling Responsive to Work-Life
  Balance Issues, (based partly on recognition of
  unpaid work (housework, community volunteer
  work) responsibilities, and further
  redistribution of female and male responsibility
  for them)
• New Forms of Socially Useful Paid Employment
  (new sustainable green, renewable products,
  environmental clean-up)
• Education and Training
• Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR)
  (portfolio development, demonstration, challenge
  exams, case studies, presentations)
• More Co-ordinated Mentoring by Senior Workers
  (including those phasing into retirement)

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Economic Reforms to Address Underemployment

• The most feasible immediate work reforms include
  work redistribution and workplace
  democratization.
• Redistribution of paid work to respond to
  increasing polarization of paid employment
  between those who feel compelled to work over 50
  hours per week and those involuntarily working
  under 30 hours or unemployed.
• Democratic workplace reorganization is to respond
  to increasing underemployment by enabling many
  workers to use their skills and knowledge more
  fully in their jobs.
• There are multitudes of specific innovations
  (including work teams, job rotation, job
  enrichment, incentive pay, flexible scheduling,
  etc.) that have sometimes been successful in
  enhancing both the quality of working conditions
  and productivity per workerwhen they are based
  on decent living standards, safe tasks in safe
  environments and open decision-making.

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Concluding Remarks

• Both survey data and more ethnographic studies
  confirm that we are now living in an information
  age in terms of the accessibility of
  employment-related knowledge from multiple
  sources, and in a learning society in terms of
  the continuing learning efforts of most workers
  (Livingstone and Sawchuk, 2003).
• Underemployment contradicts the frequent claims
  that we are also living in a knowledge-based
  economy, but the lack of immediate opportunities
  to use their knowledge in available jobs has not
  dissuaded most workers from continuing to seek
  ever more of it.

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Concluding Remarks

• Educational reforms should always be encouraged
  for human enrichment. But further educational
  reforms will be of little immediate use in
  addressing the education-jobs gap.
• Only economic reforms that address basic
  dimensions of work reform, including the
  redistribution of paid work time to reduce
  current polarization and the democratization of
  paid work to give more workers greater
  opportunities to apply their extensive acquired
  knowledge, can substantially enhance the quality
  of employment.

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Concluding Remarks
Forums at local, provincial and national levels
are needed to bring together all major interest
groups in open informed debate about the most
preferable, feasible economic alternatives to
address underemployment, nurture development of a
knowledge-based economy and continuing lifelong
learning, and provide sustainable living
conditions for all citizens.
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References

• Livingstone, D.W. (2002). Working and Learning in
  the Information Age A Profile of Canadians.
  Ottawa Canadian Policy Research Networks.
  www.cprn.org
• Livingstone, D. W. (2004). The Education-Jobs
  Gap Underemployment or Economic Democracy. (2nd
  ed.). Toronto Garamond Press.
• Livingstone, D. W. P. Sawchuk. (2004). Hidden
  Knowledge Organized Labour in the Information
  Age. Toronto Garamond Press, Boulder Rowman
  Littlefield.
• Livingstone, D.W., Scholtz, A. (2006). Work and
  Lifelong Learning in Canada Basic Findings of
  the 2004 WALL Survey. Toronto. OISE/UT, CSEW.
  80pp. Available at www.wallnetwork.ca.

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Contact

• D. W. LIVINGSTONE
• Canada Research Chair in Lifelong Learning and
  Work,
• Head, Centre for the Study of Education and
  Work,Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  of theUniversity of Toronto
• dlivingstone_at_oise.utoronto.ca
• www.wallnetwork.ca