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The Canadian Council on Learning—CCL for short—was created following a nationwide consultation on innovation. When asked the question, “What does Canada need to succeed in 21st century global economy?” business and labour organizations and Canadians recognized that today, more than ever, ongoing learning is the foundation of an individual’s success and of a prosperous economy and a strong society.
Funded through an agreement with Human Resources and Social Development Canada, CCL is an independent, not-for-profit corporation with a mandate to promote and support evidence-based decisions about learning throughout all stages of life, from early childhood through to the senior years.
CCL is still a young organization, but we have already released a number of major reports, and today I will focus on the findings of our first annual report on post-secondary education, released in December 2006, the first-ever report to provide a pan-Canadian analysis of post-secondary education.
We set out to answer the following question: to what extent does our post-secondary education and training sector contribute to achieving Canadians’ social and economic goals?
This question relates directly to your study of employability issues, because it is estimated that within the next 10 years, up to 70% of new and existing jobs will require some form of post-secondary education. Today, only 45% of Canadians possess post-secondary credentials.
I would like to highlight some of the report’s conclusions, and to invite everyone to read the full appraisal.
First, post-secondary education is no longer just about students in university or college. In a knowledge society, PSE must touch all Canadians’ lives—from workplace learning to technical skills, to adult literacy.
Secondly, Canadians are well served by their post-secondary educators and institutions.
However, when we scratch below the surface of Canada’s high participation rates in post-secondary education, we note mismatches between labour-market needs and our capacity to fill them, whether through apprenticeships in the skilled trades or through training of engineers and scientists. Unless we achieve a better understanding of supply and demand in the labour force, individuals, employers and our country will suffer.
Nine million Canadian adults lack the literacy skills needed in modern society—hampering their ability to get good jobs, and even undermining their health and quality of life.
One and a half million Canadians have unmet job-related adult education and training needs. The needs of adult learners for more flexible, affordable, and responsive methods of accessing PSE are not adequately met.
Access to and benefits of PSE are unequally distributed among Canadians – this must be addressed.
The jurisdictional context of education in Canada should not be a barrier to planning, goal-setting and progress. Indeed, individual provinces are far more likely to achieve their objectives with a national framework than without. Why? Because workers, capital, students, professionals, even institutions are now mobile. Issues of quality, of access, transfer of credits, recognition of prior learning, health care human resource planning, research, development and innovation—to name but a few—are all areas that cannot adequately be addressed in a fragmented manner. They require a plan.
If Canada is serious about stimulating economic growth, ensuring our citizens have access to rewarding employment opportunities, increasing Canada’s international competitiveness and supporting strong communities, we must develop appropriate tools for this task.
Canada lacks mechanisms to ensure coherence, coordination, and comparability for PSE—issues being addressed in most other developed countries. CCL’s report is replete with examples from other countries and supra-national bodies like the European Union. Even in the US, a country whose universities dominate the world’s top 100 ranking and whose productivity and per capita GDP are much higher than Canada’s, a federal study recently concluded that, without a national strategy for PSE, it risks falling behind economically. Is there any reason for complacency in this country?
If federal states like Australia can develop national strategies, and the independent member countries of the EU can set common goals and targets, so can Canada. Those societies that set the conditions for success will be those that prosper—economically and socially.
Canada needs goals: where do we, as a society, want to go? Canada must articulate a set of explicit, well-defined objectives for what should be achieved through PSE to maximize the overall well-being of Canada and of Canadians.
Canada needs a strategy: how do we get there? Canada must develop mechanisms that enable the key players to work together to achieve the goals—while respecting provincial responsibilities and institutional academic autonomy.
Canada needs ways to assess progress: how will we know when we get there? Canada must develop a clear set of indicators and measures to determine whether those goals and objectives are being achieved. This requires the development of a consistent, comprehensive and comparable set of measures and data, something that is lacking today.
CCL’s next annual report on PSE, to be released in the fall, will assess where progress is and is not being made, and identify further priorities for action.
In identifying further priorities for action with respect to workplace learning, CCL has set out the following five principles:
In closing, please consider the following: many organizations applauded CCL for delivering the first-ever national report on PSE and for calling for a pan-Canadian focus and strategy—organizations ranging from provincial governments to business groups, labour groups, and PSE institutions. These organizations represent the views of millions of Canadians—Canadians who know that their personal success, as well as our country’s, depends on ongoing access to the tools that support a knowledge society. Canadians want all partners to work together to create the conditions for success.
Thank you.
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