Canadian Council on Learning | Conseil Canadien sur l'Apprentissage

Strong post-secondary education sector key to Canada’s future prosperity, business leaders say

February 18, 2009 Ottawa—Post-secondary Education in Canada: Meeting our Needs?, the third annual report on post-secondary education (PSE) released today by the Canadian Council on Learning, shows that Canada remains in an enviable position when it comes to international comparisons.

But it concludes that if we wish to retain our position, we require solid evidence and information to ensure we can respond to the rapidly evolving global economy.

“Although Canada consistently ranks at or near the top of international comparisons in terms of participation and attainment, the global PSE landscape is rapidly changing. As financial analysts often warn, past performance is not a good indicator of future returns,” says Paul Cappon, CCL’s President and CEO. “The same caution can be applied to Canada’s PSE sector.” 

In recent months the importance of post-secondary education has been acknowledged by a number of prominent business organizations, including the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) which placed access to education and training at the top of their list of 10 transformative priorities that required “urgent action.”

“When Canada emerges from the current downturn, the aging of our population means that we very quickly will find ourselves facing a severe shortage of skilled labour instead of a shortage of jobs,” says Thomas d’Aquino, Chief Executive and President of CCCE. “We have to work hard now to make sure that Canadians have access to the post-secondary education and training that they will need and that a competitive economy will demand over the next decade.”

Don Drummond Chief Economist, TD Financial Group and head of the federal-provincial Labour Market Information (LMI) Advisory Panel, noted: “The LMI is tasked with determining how labour market information can contribute to Canada's economic growth and efficiency over the next decade and better respond to the growing information and planning needs of employers, workers and learners. Better information on the PSE sector is critical to achieving that goal.

CCL’s PSE report, the only comprehensive review of the ability of Canada’s universities, colleges and apprenticeship programs to respond to Canada’s social and economic goals, points to several weaknesses in the PSE sector:

• Skills match: Little is known about why students choose a particular PSE program, decisions that have a direct impact on the skill sets available in the workforce.
• Capacity: Over the last two decades, university enrolment in Canada increased at three times the rate of increases in full-time faculty.
• Innovation: While we boast the highest PSE attainment of any OECD country (in terms of working-age population), in 2006 Canada ranked 20 out of 30 countries in its proportion of science and engineering graduates.
• Quality: Canada lacks a thorough approach to quality assurance that would apply equally to all of its universities, colleges and apprenticeship programs.

As CCL’s report makes evident, the long-standing shortage of comprehensive and coherent information on Canada’s PSE sector and labour market has contributed to a skills gap in several industries.  

“One of the cruel ironies of the current economic situation is that while the number of people without jobs is growing, many positions still go unfilled due to a lack of people with the right skills,” says Perrin Beatty, President and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Chancellor of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

“As someone with a foot in both the business world and the PSE sector, it’s crystal clear to me that what is lacking is the kind of wide-ranging information that will allow industry and the PSE sector to react and interact to help address these skills shortages. CCL’s latest report on PSE makes a convincing case for the urgent need to remedy this situation.”

“It may not sound as exciting as new laptops for the classroom,” added Beatty. “But it’s every bit as important—maybe even more so—for the future of our post-secondary education sector.”

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The Canadian Council on Learning is an independent, not-for-profit corporation funded through an agreement with Human Resources and Social Development Canada. Its mandate is to promote and support evidence-based decisions about learning throughout all stages of life, from early childhood through to the senior years.

About the report
Post-Secondary Education in Canada: Meeting Our Needs? is the third annual report on PSE published by the Canadian Council on Learning and provides the only comprehensive overview of the performance of Canada’s post-secondary education sector, which includes universities, colleges and apprenticeship programs.

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