Human Capital Development

Keynote talk at the What Works Alberta Conference 2004, Building a Skilled Labour Force. Edmonton, February 18, 2004. Shaping the kind of workforce and workplaces Alberta will need in 2014 requires labour market stakeholders to collaborate on creative policies and programs. Dr. Lowe provides a starting point for this collaboration by outlining how major social, […]

Keynote presentation at "What Works: A Two-Day Forum of Employer Leading Practices," hosted by the York Region It’s All Here Initiative and the York South Simcoe Training & Adjustment Board. This 2-day forum focuses on sharing employer leading practices in recruiting, retaining and developing skilled workers. A variety of employer representatives will provide critical information […]

The European Union’s goal of becoming the world’s most competitive knowledge-based economy by 2010 will depend, in part, on achieving its ambitious goals for improving the overall quality of jobs.

This paper examines two health issues of crucial importance to practitioners and policy makers: the work environment and organizational factors that positively influence workers’ health and well-being, and the relationship between healthy workplaces and productivity. Research in diverse disciplines agrees on the importance of supporting employees to be effective in their jobs in ways that […]

Despite much debate and commentary on the emerging knowledge economy in Canada and other industrialized countries, there has been little in-depth analysis of how gender issues are playing out in the process of economic and workplace change. Women’s experiences on the job are usually examined using a limited range of measures, and scant attention has […]

Keynote presentation by Graham Lowe at the Health, Work & Wellness 2002 Conference. Lake Louise, Alberta. October 7, 2002

Across the industrialized world, governments have adopted a human resource-based model of economic development. Enabling citizens to acquire knowledge, skills and education is a necessary but no longer sufficient condition for economic success. Equally crucial is ensuring that past investments have the intended social and economic payoffs. The next generation of policy must strive to […]

Much of the debate about enhancing the employability skills of Canadian youth is premised on untested assumptions. This paper examines Alberta high school students’ self-reports of the employability skills they have acquired in high school courses, formal work experience programs, paid part-time employment, and volunteer work. Certain types of employability skills are considerably more likely […]

This paper examines changes in employment relationships in Canada during the late 20th century. Despite well documented transformations in labour market structures and work contexts, we are only now grasping the significance of these trends for the relationships between workers and employers. Considerable debate revolves around the extent and nature of new employment relationships. Still, […]

Participants at the National Roundtable on Learning, convened by Canadian Policy Research Networks on behalf of Human Resources Development Canada, proposed a Vision for Learning as a way to address the widely expressed concern at the Roundtable that Canada is not moving fast enough to increase learning opportunities and to remove barriers to learning. Acknowledging […]