The Postsecondary and Workplace Skills Project

Workplace expectations are changing. Surveys show that employers are increasingly looking to hire graduates with critical thinking skills. How well prepared are today’s students? HEQCO’s Postsecondary and Workplace Skills (PAWS) project aims to analyze the relationship between critical thinking skills developed during the postsecondary years and labour market outcomes.

The PAWS project used the HEIghten Critical Thinking assessment, a test that is designed to evaluate students’ ability to analyze evidence, understand implications and consequences, and develop valid arguments. More than 2,900 students at two institutions participated in the study,

The Postsecondary and Workplace Skills project is undertaken in partnership with Employment and Skills Development Canada and the Education Policy Research Initiative.​

HEQCO completed two large-scale trials involving more than 7,500 students at 20 Ontario universities and colleges to measure literacy, numeracy and critical-thinking skills in entering and graduating students. The results of the trials are contained in the report On Test: Skills, Summary of Findings from HEQCO’s Skills Assessment Pilot Studies. 

On Test: Skills, Summary of Findings from HEQCO’s Skills Assessment Pilot Studies

One-quarter of graduating students score below adequate on measures of literacy, numeracy One of the first major attempts to measure employment-related skills in university and college students on a large scale shows that students are experiencing some gains in literacy, numeracy and critical-thinking scores over the course of their undergraduate studies. Yet, one in four […]