Survey of Educational Attainment (Alberta)

Detailed information for 1985

The data obtained from this survey will be useful to the Alberta government in manpower planning and in forecasting future demands on universities and community colleges in that province. In other words, the provincial government needs to determine how skilled the workforce is in order to assess the potential population to be served by universities and community colleges.

Data release - July 6, 1995 (Microdata User's Guide)

• Description
• Data sources and methodology

Description

The data obtained from this survey will be useful to the Alberta government in manpower planning and in forecasting future demands on universities and community colleges in that province. In other words, the provincial government needs to determine how skilled the workforce is in order to assess the potential population to be served by universities and community colleges.

Subjects

• Educational attainment
• Education, training and learning
• Job training and educational attainment
• Labour

Data sources and methodology

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.

Error detection

Sampling errors: The estimates are based on a national sample of slightly less than 1% of the population. The resulting sampling errors, which can be measured, vary according to a number of factors the most important of which is the size of the estimate. Sampling variance indicators are published in "The Labour Force". Non-sampling errors: Errors unrelated to sampling can occur at every stage of a survey. These non-sampling errors range from the respondent misunderstanding the question to errors introduced during processing. Mechanisms to minimize these errors are in place although the final estimates are still affected to some degree.

Estimation

The LFS records are weighted using what can be thought of as a three-stage process. The first stage involves the assignment to each record of the inverse of the design sampling ratio applicable to the geographic area where the respondent represented by that record resides. The second stage involves adjustments to the weight assigned in the first stage. These include an adjustment for the rural/urban distribution of the population and an adjustment for non-response (both performed for relatively small sub-provincial areas). It also includes an adjustment for unanticipated population growth in particular small areas selected for the sample (clusters) and an adjustment for the fact that the sample size remains constant (55,000 households) resulting in a slowly declining sampling ratio as the population grows. The third stage involves the comparison of the sum of the weights assigned to the records in the first two stages to population totals derived from sources independent of the LFS. These comparisons are done for 38 age-sex groups for each province. The weights for all records belonging to an age-sex province group are then adjusted so that their sum is equal to the corresponding independently derived population total. The independently derived population totals are obtained as projections from the annual post-censal estimates of population produced by Demography Division with adjustments to reflect the exclusions described in Design and Procedures of the LFS (ID=3701). An adjustment is made to the basic LFS sampling weight to reflect the subsampling of rotation groups and the difference in non-response between the LFS and the supplementary survey.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

In order to prevent any data disclosure, confidentiality analysis is done using the Statistics Canada Generalized Disclosure Control System (G-Confid). G-Confid is used for primary suppression (direct disclosure) as well as for secondary suppression (residual disclosure). Direct disclosure occurs when the value in a tabulation cell is composed of or dominated by few enterprises while residual disclosure occurs when confidential information can be derived indirectly by piecing together information from different sources or data series.