There is a growing disconnect between what’s needed and what’s taught.
The gap is widening between business expectations of new hires entering the workforce and the competencies that graduates acquire from our learning institutions.
This pattern was a common finding at three Western Canada symposiums held last year facilitated by the Office for Partnerships for Advanced Skills (OPAS).
OPAS is a partnership of government, industry and universities dedicated to fostering co-operation between these three important sectors. OPAS, a not-for-profit organization, addresses market issues (such as the supply and demand of highly qualified personnel), undertakes skills and labour initiatives (such as fostering lifelong learning), and facilitates knowledge transfer from innovation to enterprise.
The three symposiums were funded in part by the federal Human Resources and Skills Development (HRSD) Department. Each of the symposiums focused on the needs of a particular industry – financial, health, and oil and gas. Senior-level decision makers from academia, government and industry attended.
In a collaborative way, the symposiums centred on addressing how educational institutions could improve their alignment with the needs of the workplace and what government and industry could do to assist these institutions.
“The current contribution of education and the emerging challenges faced by industry resulting from technology and globalization need to be addressed,” said Ken Stratford, commissioner of the Business Victoria Economic Development Commission, who also serves as the western chair of OPAS.
Stratford added that a common thread in the symposiums was that “soft skills” such as teamwork and dispute resolution are of growing value in the workplace.
“The ability to think critically, apply common sense in problem-solving and demonstrate business acumen needs to be enhanced by our learning institutions.
“In addition, educational institutions and industry must address the emerging issues such as improved employment training for Aboriginal and aging workers, global competition for skilled industry workers, and outsourcing,” he said. “Outsourcing of non-core work will continue … (and) as industry leverages infor-mation technology, the scope of jobs will broaden.”
So learning institutions must keep programs up to date and offer only relevant training as they expend their limited resources.
“Academia needs to work more closely with industry to identify needs and how effective the graduates are,” he said. “This will improve effectiveness of the programs and therefore the people.”
Stratford recalled that a symposium attendee from a national accounting firm observed that it takes six months for new hires to get up to speed and become productive.
Clearly, there are problems in academia.
“There are three significant educational shortcomings at the macro level,” said Stratford. “First, the federal government has failed to craft a national job and skills strategy. They have ceded this responsibility to the provinces with balkanized results.
“Canada needs to take a holistic view and provide an overarching strategy that will enable institutions to align their individual strategies and goals to support the federal strategy. This failure impedes the success of our institutions.”
In turn, this gives rise to the second major issue – productivity. In a globalized economy nations must be productive or perish. Business 101 teaches that in the absence of corporate-level planning, entities within an organization left to their own devices undertake an array of initiatives. These do not always achieve the best value for money. The result is a lower competitive advantage and poorer national productivity.
“Academia’s institutions are like football players on the field,” he said. “They know they are to score a goal, but there is no quarterback; no game plan. This is a hot button in the business sector that must be addressed by political leaders.”
The third issue, according to Stratford, is the failure of post-secondary institutions to collaborate. They compete for the same students rather than each addressing the needs of a segregated market. Today’s MBA offerings illustrate the growing competition in the marketplace.
“When one institution invests the money to develop a program, the government requires that they share it,” he said. “This reduces the opportunity to realize a return on the development investment, which in turn tends to reduce the number of programs being developed and does not serve any of the stakeholders well.”
The shortcomings are not just with post-secondary institutions but also with all levels of training. Stratford cited as an example that the mobility of tradespeople between Canada’s provinces and territories needs improvement to balance the labour supply properly with the demand.
“Some oil and gas trades are not included in the red seal program (which facilitates inter-provincial and inter-territorial mobility) in some provinces and territories.”
Canada cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the need for a national educational plan for jobs and skills in today’s global village.
