Author Description

In this paper, we consider the use of the Canadian Adult Education and Training Survey (AETS) as a vehicle for studying participation in, and the impacts of, education and training activities for adults. The paper builds on our experience in utilizing the 1998 AETS in precisely these ways, as reported in Hui and Smith (2002). We conclude that the AETS constitutes a useful tool for studying participation in adult education and training, although we suggest some modifications that would improve it on this dimension. In contrast, following Hui and Smith (2002), we conclude that, as currently constituted, the AETS lacks critical pieces of information that would allow its use as a base for evaluating the labour market impacts of adult education and training. This is not surprising, as it was not originally designed for this purpose. We detail the types of additional information required to allow a future version of the AETS to serve this purpose.