BRIEF FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN INSTITUTE
OF APPLIED SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Executive Summary
Recent economic turmoil will not halt the inevitable demographic
shift threatening the stability of Canada’s labour market supply. Regardless of
periodic economic fluctuations, the country’s work force continues to age and
retire, while at the same time, demand for workers continues to grow, and
participation in the labour market is expected to decline.
Ensuring that Canada can compete globally in both the near- and
long-term requires a stronger national focus on post-secondary education,
especially in the areas of labour market participation, market-driven technical
education and skills training, and solutions-oriented research. To all three
areas, the college sector brings significant expertise.
SIAST urges the federal government to collaborate with provincial
and territorial governments, the private sector and all educational sectors on
development of a national action plan for advanced education. At the same time,
in its upcoming budget, the federal government should allocate resources
towards:
Improving educational outcomes of Aboriginal people. Increasing
the proportion of research funding allocated to colleges. Increasing targeted
investment in post-secondary education.
Improving Educational Outcomes of Aboriginal People
As recently as this summer, the Auditor General of Canada reported
that the education gap continues to grow between on-reserve First Nations people
and other Canadians. The 2011 June Status Report of the Auditor General said
that 41 percent of people living on reserves have completed high school
compared to 77 percent of other Canadians.
Canada’s Aboriginal population is a largely untapped talent pool
that we can no longer afford to ignore. Education of Aboriginal Canadians is a
first step toward ensuring that this segment of the population is equipped to
participate fully in the economy as the country’s traditional labour force
shrinks. Additionally, as the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC)
notes, raising the educational and employment levels of Aboriginal Canadians
will result in increased tax revenue for government and in significant reductions
in government expenditures.
The 2011 federal budget commitment to expand basic education in the
north was a small but positive step in the right direction. Canada needs to do
a better job of helping Aboriginal youth complete high school, while at the
same time investing in basic education for adults and in removing barriers to
post-secondary success for Aboriginal Canadians.
At SIAST, where a long-standing commitment to education equity has
resulted in Aboriginal enrolment that is consistently near 20 percent, a recent
study nevertheless identified multiple barriers to program completion. Our
study resulted in 21 recommendations that ranged from providing assistance with
the application process to the provision of support in key personal and academic
skills. Our intent is to eliminate the program completion gap between
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students, and we challenge the federal government
to match that aspiration. An Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada
goal to have 75 percent of First Nations people match the educational
attainment of other Canadians by 2028 simply isn’t good enough.
Recommendation: SIAST
supports the ACCC recommendation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on
Finance to commit to raising the education attainment rates of Aboriginal
people to national averages.
Increasing the Proportion of Research Funding Allocated to Colleges
The federal government’s commitment in its 2011 throne speech to
invest in research by private enterprise, colleges and universities is an
important acknowledgment of the contribution colleges can make to future prosperity
through innovation. The essential next step is to increase the proportion of
funding allocated to colleges. Currently, as noted by ACCC, the federal
government’s funding level for research at colleges is 1.25 percent of what it
provides for research at universities and hospitals.
Though their extensive connections with small- and medium-sized
enterprises, colleges are in a unique position to collaborate on research
focused on productivity improvements, new opportunities and real-world challenges.
Canada’s 150 colleges engage with employers on an ongoing basis to ensure
programs are relevant to labour market needs and, increasingly, to collaborate
on applied research initiatives. Illustrating the value that business places on
its college connections, ACCC reports that during the recent economic recession,
the private sector sustained its applied research funding for colleges, which
had increased from $4 million to $45 million during the three previous years.
Partnerships with companies increased seven-fold during the same period. The
research capacity of colleges is validated also by the increase in the number
of colleges eligible to apply for Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) funding - up almost
500 percent to 64.
Applied research at colleges doesn’t just help SMEs hone their
competitive edge, by involving students, it develops an innovative mindset
within tomorrow’s workforce. College grads will be the single largest segment
of that workforce: Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC)
estimates that the number of college graduates in the workforce will increase
7.4 percent to 6.8 million over the next seven years, compared with 4.8 million
university grads.
Recommendation: SIAST
supports the recommendation by ACCC to the Standing Committee on Finance to
allocate five percent of federal research and development funding to applied
research partnerships between colleges and small- and medium-sized enterprises.
Increasing Targeted Investment in Post-Secondary Education
To compete on a global stage, Canada needs to develop a stronger
national approach to education, particularly post-secondary education. It is
especially important that funds be earmarked for the college sector. As
indicated above, people with college credentials will be the largest
demographic segment in demand by the labour market in the years ahead. ACCC
points out, however, that tens of thousands of potential workers are unable to
train for their chosen careers due to competition for limited seats in highdemand
program areas.
At SIAST, through ingenuity in resource management, we’ve been able
to accommodate significant increases in demand in recent years. Already one of
the country’s largest college-sector institutions, our enrolment is up 30
percent over four years, and our graduate employment rate is consistently above
90 percent (after six months). We are increasingly developing our national and
international presence, brokering programs in such countries as India and
Vietnam, and putting in place initiatives to increase international enrolment
and immigration. Sustaining this level of activity requires additional
investment.
The federal government’s recent Knowledge Infrastructure Program
was a much-appreciated step in the right direction, as was the Government of
Canada’s 2008-09 increase in the Canada Social Transfer (CST) for post-secondary.
However, more needs to be done. SIAST supports the ACCC suggestion that the
expiry of the CST in 2014 would be an appropriate time to establish a dedicated
post-secondary transfer fund with accountability requirements.
Recommendation: SIAST
fully endorses the recommendation by ACCC to the Standing Committee on Finance
to establish a $3.8 billion separate post-secondary education transfer, with
accountability requirements to Parliament, and to increase the transfer by at
last three percent annually.
The Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology
(SIAST) is an internationally recognized
provider of skills and technical training. Through partnerships with
business and industry, we ensure that curriculum matches opportunities and needs
in the workplace, an approach that results in high employer satisfaction with SIAST
graduates. Our consultative approach and commitment to real-life learning contribute
to a consistently high graduate employment rate. Our enrolment is 17,000 full-load
equivalent; we serve 26,000 distinct students at campuses in four cities and through
extensive distance programming. About half our students come directly from high
school or post-secondary institutions, and half come from the workplace.
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