“Stereotype of ‘menial worker’ is obsolete” was the headline of a Toronto Star article that a colleague pointed me to. The article was inspired by a report released by the Ontario Literacy Council: Menial No More [pdf, 562 KB].
The discussion paper revolves around the concept that ‘low-skilled’ jobs need ‘high-skill’ ability.
the reality is that almost one million adults in Ontario do not have a high school diploma. While these adults tend to dominate many ‘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 assistants while cleaning rooms.
Too many people believe that a national digital strategy is all about infrastructure. This report brings the human element into focus: seeking to ensure that we think of how we can tailor accessible education and training programs for our most vulnerable citizens. As skill levels and expectations of jobs rise, going back to high school to obtain a diploma is usually not an option – too time-consuming or costly. For many workers, we need to find other kinds of training options.
This isn’t just a federal issue. As my colleague wrote to me, the percentages and numbers may not align with other studies, but we can agree with the Star’s conclusions: that there is enough evidence of a shift in the Ontario job market that politicians and policy makers would want to “dig deeper” and begin to think differently about how to train workers and allocate more education dollars toward that segment of “the adult population that lacks the skills to fill out an online application or compete for an entry-level job in the digital economy.”