The Payoff: Returns to University, College and Trades Education in Canada, 1980 to 2005

Among OECD countries, Canada has the highest percentage of postsecondary graduates in the population 25-64 years old, which is due to having a large proportion of nonuniversity postsecondary graduates from colleges and trade schools. By considering the financial returns to types of postsecondary education, which reflect demand and supply, this paper examines whether Canada has produced too many postsecondary graduates in general, or too many graduates from colleges or trade schools in particular. The answers to both questions is no. There are high rates of return to higher education, with the exception of women graduates of trade schools.Education Papers, postsecondary education, OECD countries

The Warnie volcanic province : Jurassic intraplate volcanism in Central Australia

We wish to thank Santos Ltd. for providing us with the Snowball 3D seismic survey. In particular we wish to thank Jenni Clifford and Lance Holmes who provided helpful feedback and 2D seismic lines covering the Lambda 1, Orientos 2 and Warnie East 1 wells. We also wish to thank Beach Energy, in particular Rob Menpes, for the helpful discussions and feedback on the manuscript in addition to helping us with the analysis of the magnetic data. The work contained in this paper contains work conducted during a PhD study undertaken as part of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Oil & Gas [grant number NEM00578X/1] and is fully funded by NERC whose support is gratefully acknowledged. Lastly, the two anonymous reviews of the manuscript are thanked for their insightful and constructive comments that significantly improved the work presented.Peer reviewedPostprin

Schooling, Literacy and the Labour Market: Towards a 'Literacy Shortage'?

This essay attempts to determine whether the Canadian educational system is failing to produce an adequate supply of persons with the basic literacy skills required by a modern economy, using unpublished data from the Survey of Literacy Skills Used in Daily Activities. Two aspects of the issue are examined: first, the extent to which the literacy skills of succeeding age cohorts have improved; second, whether future labor market needs for literacy skills are likely to be met. We conclude that Canadians' literacy skills have improved over time, and that the Canadian labor market's demand for literacy skills will be met by the available level of these skill through the turn of the century.

Postsecondary Education in Canada: Returns to University, College and Trades Education

By international standards, the level of educational attainment in Canada is exceptionally high, with the proportion of adult Canadians holding postsecondary educational certificates being more than twice the OECD average. This remarkable ranking is primarily the result of high participation in non-university postsecondary educational sectors: colleges, trades institutions, and other vocational educators. While the non-university postsecondary education (PSE) sector is clearly important in terms of both the quantity and the qualitative nature of human capital it produces, it has received very little attention in the academic literature , which has tended to focus on the outcomes of university graduates. This paper uses Census data from 1980 to 2000 to examine the evolution of the earnings premia to university, college, and trades educat i o n over a 20-year period of rapid economic change. Examining this evolution is a prerequisite to understanding the behaviour of participation in the various postsecondary education streams and to the appropriate conduct of educational and labour market policy.

Technology adoption, training and productivity performance

Advanced technologies are commonly thought to be complementary to skills. Firms that adopt new technologies (for example, computer-aided design and control) and at the same time invest in skills (for example, training in computer literacy and technical skills) are expected to realize greater productivity gains than those that do not. To validate this expectation, this paper first identifies the combinations of technologies and types of training that are commonly undertaken by firms, presumably as part of their strategies to effectively utilize the adopted technologies and to improve their economic performance. This paper then estimates the relationship between these common technology-training combinations and productivity performance. It shows that these combinations are associated with higher productivity.Technology adoption Training Productivity