1 In 3 Adults Retraining or Upgrading
Women Lead the Surge in Adult Learning

More adults than ever before are retraining or upgrading their skills to meet the demands of an ever-changing job market, and for the first time women are either keeping pace or surpassing men. In a national study, one out of every three adult workers aged 25 to 64 (an estimated 4.8 million), participated in some type of formal job-related training in 2002 - proportionately higher than the 29% of workers who reported they had taken formal training in 1997. Participation rates rose within the ranks of both men and women, as well as across all age groups and all provinces.

Historically, the tendency has been for younger workers to have the highest participation rates, and this was again the case in 2002. Four out of every 10 workers (42%) aged 25 to 34 had had formal, job-related training, up from 33% in 1997. Although the time spent training rose in every province, average time spent in training increased substantially in only four provinces: Nova Scotia , Ontario , Manitoba and Saskatchewan . Participants in Newfoundland and Labrador trained on average for 219 hours, the highest in Canada , but that was down from 231 hours five years earlier.

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