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Fiona Deller – Need to Read: Access, flexibility and a little disruption

Sharing the best in postsecondary news and commentary Education Week has done a nice series called College Access for All, where education experts/ innovators talk about how their programs encourage and effect access in American colleges. Among the articles I particularly liked: College prep is career prep is an interesting piece by a secondary school […]

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Ryan Whibbs – Time for a “mash up” of industry-relevant skills, theoretical training

  Guest blogger: Ryan Whibbs A fascinating discussion recently took place on CBC Radio’s The Current. Anna Maria Tremonti hosted Don Tapscott, Chancellor of Trent University; Sarah Watts-Rynard, Executive Director of the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum; and David Ticoll, Special Advisor to the Canadian Coalition for Tomorrow’s ICT Skills,  for a discussion  on “the debate between […]

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Fiona Deller – Need to Read: Scottish apprenticeships, Australian budgets and, oh, about those lectures

Sharing the best in postsecondary news and commentary Germany isn’t the only game in town. Scotland just doubled its number of apprentices in five years by setting a goal, expanding the types of apprenticeships available, launching a nationwide marketing campaign, creating new financial incentives and introducing new government apprenticeships. Interestingly, 52% of new apprentices in […]

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Sarah Watts-Rynard – Building the next generation of tradespeople

Voices from HEQCO’s November 2014 conference Hands On: Exploring Apprenticeship and the Skilled Trades   Guest blogger: Sarah Watts-Rynard Despite some debate about whether or not Canada is experiencing a skills shortage – economists say no, employers say yes – the reality is that a generation of expert tradespeople is moving toward retirement age.  Their […]

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David Trick – A happy 50th birthday to Ontario’s MTCU

  Guest blogger: David Trick Amid all the anniversary celebrations in higher education in recent years, one more deserves to be noted: May 8 is the 50th birthday of Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. Until 1964, the Premier was in effect the minister responsible for Ontario’s universities. Premier John Robarts had an Advisory […]

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Fiona Deller – Need to Read: Gender, grad employment and grants vs loans

Sharing the best in postsecondary news and commentary I do appreciate a good longitudinal/historical critique. This recent meta-analysis by researchers at UNB looks at Gender Differences in Scholastic Achievement over 100 years (since 1914) and concludes that females have always done better than males and that all the recent talk of a crisis in boys’ […]

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Martin Hicks – Data in Quarantine

Higher education is often pitched as an investment — by individuals in their future, and by the public in a strong economy and an engaged citizenry.  Good investors do their homework and base their decisions on facts and data.  Does Canada have sufficient data to make healthy investment decisions in higher education? As was underscored […]

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Fiona Deller – Need To Read: The ROI on degrees, the Skills Gap and Student Debt

Sharing the best in postsecondary news and commentary Last week the American PayScale put out their annual report on return on investment (ROI). They have an interactive site you can play with here. There was plenty of commentary, with the Atlantic writing about which degrees make you richer and the New York Times writing about […]

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Martin Hicks – The alchemist’s dream

Just tell me, please, where the jobs of the future will be.  Then those working in higher education can plan accordingly, adjust the credential and programming mix, and drive students into the right programs.  Actually students won’t need driving, because they will surely make superior choices and not continue to stumble into the humanities or […]