Skills, Competencies and Credentials

Current credential and accreditation system does not serve students well The current university system of credentials, accreditation and transcripts does not serve most undergraduate students well, according to a new report from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO). While the current system does an excellent job documenting students’ knowledge of content, it provides […]

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Alan Harrison — Skills, competencies and credentials: The stairway to heaven?

Longer ago than I care to remember, I went to a presentation given by Norm Wagner, who was at the time the president of the Corporate Higher Education Forum, after 10 years as president of the University of Calgary. Wagner talked about what employers look for when they interview students who had successfully completed undergraduate […]

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Joe Henry — Experiential Learning: It’s been happening for years

There has been much discussion in the postsecondary education community about the importance of experiential learning as an innovative pedagogy and key path to smoothing the transition to the job market for graduates. Research indicates that when students can connect their experiences in the classroom to outside the classroom, engagement increases and the transition to […]

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Harvey P. Weingarten – FutureSkills Lab: A Step in the Right Direction

Recently, the federal finance minister’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth recommended the creation of a national organization — the FutureSkills Lab — to serve as a laboratory for the development and measurement of skills. This proposed laboratory represents a significant and progressive advance that can increase Canada’s global competitiveness and offer its citizens the economic […]

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EduData: Students’ perspectives on work-integrated learning

Almost half of Ontario’s postsecondary students take part in a co-op, internship, field placement or some other form of work-integrated learning (WIL) by the time they graduate. HEQCO’s research focus is on the quality of students’ WIL experiences. We asked Academica Group to survey college and university students on their perceptions about WIL. Among students […]

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Harvey P. Weingarten – Postsecondary education and jobs: It’s a question of skills

This week, we released a study examining the relationship between the supply of graduates from six regulated professions – medicine, law, teaching, architecture, engineering, nursing – and the labour demand for these graduates.  The historical evidence provided in that analysis is clear – we never get it right! We either oversupply or undersupply. This conclusion […]

Labour Market Trends and Outlooks for Regulated Professions in Ontario

Persistent labour market imbalances in education , law , medicine , nursing , architecture and engineering Professional degree holders , whose credentials prepare them for a specific occupation , might assume they’ll move directly into a job post-graduation. But a new study from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario finds that attempts to manage these […]

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Lisa Philipps, Joseph Turcotte and Leslie Nichols – The downsides of postsecondary co-op work placements

Canadian higher education is entering a new age of “work-integrated” learning. More and more students are seeking a co-op placements, internships or other hands-on work experience as part of their postsecondary program. Long present at community colleges, universities are now also moving into this space, and policy makers are urging them to do more. The […]

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EduData – Ontario PhD Grads by Discipline

This spring, we published an examination of employment outcomes for Ontario PhD graduates from the class of 2009. Ontario’s PhD Graduates from 2009: Where are they now? found that more than 50% are working in higher education. Arguably more interesting are the employment outcomes of the 35% of 2009 PhD graduates who are working outside […]