Learning on the line

Lucy Hyslop | Image: Jeremy Bruneel | Published: July 01, 2008

There is a decade-old story – told by an adult literacy worker in a small industrial town in northern B.C. – of a supervisor demanding that the name of an employee being helped with his reading be revealed. Why? So he could fire him and put in his place someone with higher skills.

Fast-forward to 2008 and this lack of sympathy would cut no ice with Marlyne Harrison. Today the 10-year veteran at Teck Cominco Ltd. (TCK.B-T) is happily opening up to me – and management – about her learning curve through a much-acclaimed scheme to help the 1,500 employees on-site in Trail, B.C. Originally hired as a finance assistant, Harrison was promoted to a buyer before landing her current role as purchasing systems administrator – thanks, in part she says, to her improved computer literacy, skills accrued at the company-funded The Learning Centre (TLC).

Any time you are more knowledgeable on a topic, your self-esteem rises,” the 49-year-old asserts. “It gives you the confidence to pursue and try new things. I have moved ahead within this organization, and I must say my skill level has contributed.”

Employee feedback from its regular job-specific training in the mid-’90s galvanized Teck Cominco into tackling the issue of basic learning. “They told us that they did not have the fundamental basic academic skills to make the most of these initiatives,” explains Carol Vanelli Worosz, the company’s communications manager. After commissioning an organizational needs assessment, it opened TLC on its 142-hectare-wide West Kootenays site in 1998. Since launch day, some 1,100 employees have taken more than 800 courses, from assertive communication and technical writing to an introduction to computers and spreadsheets. In addition to job promotions such as Harrison’s, TLC success stories include cap-and-gown graduation ceremonies for those passing their Grade 12 (although this has been a prerequisite for recruits in recent times) and middle-aged ironworkers receiving bachelor’s degrees. “The goal is to engage people in learning, which obviously has a role in enhancing literacy,” says Vanelli Worosz. “If people feel stronger in terms of their basic skills, they will feel more comfortable in company training programs on-site. Individuals will feel more confident, which transfers into life at home and at work.”

Teck Cominco is one of several B.C. businesses embracing workplace literacy programs, including the Molson Brewery, Hastings Racecourse, the City of Vancouver and Surrey Memorial Hospital. The programs run the gamut

from traditional read-and-write efforts to basic computer literacy programs; where literacy was once perceived to be a social issue, many employers are now recognizing it as an economic imperative. The competition from low-cost labour in China, India and Brazil has left workers needing greater skills to handle jobs in B.C., as manufacturing morphs from traditional areas such as textiles and clothing into sectors using more machinery. As Craig Alexander, deputy chief economist with TD Bank Financial Group (TD-T), points out, “Across all industries we are seeing a shift towards more higher-value-added and therefore more sophisticated production approaches. And the skill sets in those positions are much higher, with workers needing more technical skills.”

In the past, those skill sets would likely have been found within the province. “You could certainly advertise for those you were looking for and expect to find it within the general population,” explains Cynthia Whitaker, executive director of Literacy BC, an organization that promotes literacy activities in the province, “whether that was somebody who was already working or was just attracted by your job ad and had the skills.” With the current labour shortage, recruiting their way out of a human-resources challenge is no longer the answer for employers. “They have to be prepared to invest in training workers,” Whitaker opines, “whether that’s training their current workforce or being prepared to bring people in who they know are going to need training.”