The reality is that one million adults in Ontario do not have a high school diploma. While these adults continue to dominate such ‘low-skilled’ occupations in manufacturing, retail, food processing, and service industries, more university and college graduates are filling these positions, as these jobs now require a far greater range of skills than before. For instance, coffee shop baristas no longer just serve coffee, but troubleshoot the Wi-Fi; and hotel room attendants are now often required to operate personal digital while cleaning rooms.

Menial No More: A Discussion Paper on Advancing our Workforce through Digital Skills – produced by the OLC - suggests that as a result of emerging technology, consumer expectations, and increased global competition, jobs perceived as ‘low-skilled’ or ‘entry level’ need new kinds of skills – and that Ontario’s economy may depend on our ability to train current and future workers in these types of positions.

Recent discussions about the problems facing our labour market have focused on the problem of university and college graduates finding themselves in ‘entry-level’ or ‘low-skilled’ employment. While this discussion is partly about sustainable earnings for graduates, it is also about ‘wasted talent’. This is an important discussion, but we are only looking at part of the equation: perhaps the jobs we routinely classify as requiring low educational attainment now require a far greater range of skills and abilities.

A recent study on workforce skills by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), notes these game-changing forces at play in Western countries: jobs which previously required low skills are being filled by people who have a range of science and technology skills. The study proclaimed that the combination of ever-expanding technology with employer expectations has changed the very nature of low-skilled positions forever.

These jobs are important. They are staffed by people who help us find the right item at a store, process and serve our food, assemble quality products, mine resources, and serve on the front lines of our healthcare services. Indeed, the success or failure of any enterprise may well depend on this group of workers. And it is not just employers who expect more from these positions - as consumers of services and shoppers of goods, we all have come to expect so much more from the people who staff these jobs. The combination of emerging technology and consumer expectations has changed the labour market forever. In sum, jobs previously described as menial – are menial no more.

When our economy launches into full steam and our colleges and university graduates move to more substantive forms of employment; and as digital technology becomes even more ubiquitous: what are the options for preparing the millions of Ontarians without a high school diploma for jobs in a knowledge economy? Education and training programs discourage all but the most determined low-skilled adults from completing a postsecondary program – and few financial incentives would lead them to invest the time needed to even become eligible. Our education and training system is not gears toward training for these types of positions, not does Ontario have any coherent strategies toward training the vulnerable beyond a traditional sequence of skills development. This is the challenge.

There are over a thousand service providers in Ontario delivering adult education, training and employment programs, yet when it comes to labour market preparation for the most vulnerable workers, the results are both mixed and unsustainable.

How can we do things differently?

Menial No More gives recommendations for how to create a more seamless system. Ontario has done significant work in sorting out the maze of employment services; however, our training system is still built around a particular sequence of events that more often than not replicates the Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) system for non-high school graduates. First an adult develops basic essential skills, gets a high school diploma or equivalency, accesses further skills training, and finally searches for employment. For many, this will be a long and financially difficult process.

Other jurisdictions are having success by fully integrating literacy education with digital skills, basic science and job specific training. To date, the results show that adults move to employment more rapidly and earn higher wages, with an added dividend as it costs government partners less. Ontario will need to enhance its vision of basic education and move away from a traditional roadmap to success. Combining essential skills learning with digital skills and science in job-focused programming could provide new routes to success for the one million Ontarians without a high school diploma.

It begins with a commitment

It will take a commitment to radical innovation from both government and educators to make this vision possible. We need to look beyond what we have and start to look at what is needed. We need to wrap our services around the needs of vulnerable workers and the range of job opportunities appearing in Ontario’s economy. Companies and consumers know that the job descriptions of the food processor, the hospital orderly, the room attendant, and the miner have been changed by technology and require new, unique sets of skills. It is now up to our education and training systems to align our work with these types of jobs. We have one million reasons to do so.

For more information please contact:

Allison Mullin, Manager of Communications and Marketing
Ontario Literacy Coalition
(416) 963-5787 Ext. 28
allison@on.literacy.ca

John MacLaughlin, Manager of Program, Business and Partnership Development
Ontario Literacy Coalition
(416) 963-5787 Ext. 24
john@on.literacy.ca