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Carolyn Crosby – Pathways to career-ready math skills

Guest blogger: Carolyn Crosby About five years ago I had a student in grade 10 who told me his brother was in a college carpentry program and the first thing his college teacher said was: “Forget all the math they taught you in high school – it doesn’t apply here.”  I couldn’t refute his statement […]

Work Integrated Learning in Ontario’s Postsecondary Sector The Pathways of Recent College and University Graduates

Work-integrated learning benefits students’ careers – but some benefit more than others Internships, field placements, co-op and other forms of postsecondary work-integrated learning (WIL) help college and university students clarify their career interests and get jobs relevant to their education and career ambitions, according to a new report from the Higher Education Quality Council of […]

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Martin Hicks – Wrenches and scalpels

I was thinking about this fall’s HEQCO conference “Hands on: Exploring apprenticeship and the skilled trades.”  We are broadening our focus to embrace pieces of the postsecondary mosaic beyond public colleges and universities, and the conference is but one manifestation.  And yet, even as we do so we are aware of a trade off (pun […]

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Fiona Deller – Ontario the attainment chart-topper — except in the trades

We can puff out our chests with pride. The most current OECD numbers show that Canada still tops the charts for postsecondary attainment — number one in college attainment, number one in overall attainment for 25 to 64 year olds. And Ontario’s at the top of the heap in both college and university attainment for […]

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Martin Hicks – Still worth it, after all these years

Last week, the Globe and Mail dissected Ontario’s latest annual university graduate survey results.  Lead conclusion: “recent graduates of Ontario universities are doing worse on almost all measures of employment compared to those who graduated before the recession.”   And more pointedly: “humanities graduates have been particularly affected, with their real earnings dropping steeply from what […]

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Gail Smyth – Bring skilled trades and technologies to education discussion

Guest blogger: Gail Smyth Voices from HEQCO’s November 2014 conference Hands On: Exploring Apprenticeship and the Skilled Trades Today’s graduates are facing challenging times; they have been in school for most of their lives, have little to no work experience in their field of expertise and a large number of graduates may be facing years […]

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Stewart Kallio – Canadian apprenticeship completions lag far behind registrations

Guest blogger: Stewart Kallio Voices from HEQCO’s November 2014 conference Hands On: Exploring Apprenticeship and the Skilled Trades Work in the trades provides good, well-paying jobs, yet young Canadians do not see the skilled trades as a viable career. Often, they enter an apprenticeship path later in their work career. In Ontario, for example, the […]

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Barbara Endel – Accelerating Opportunity builds pathways to marketable credentials

Guest blogger: Barbara Endel Voices from HEQCO’s November 2014 conference Hands On: Exploring Apprenticeship and the Skilled Trades Right now, the United States is facing a major skills and educational attainment gap. Family-supporting jobs increasingly require a postsecondary credential.  It’s estimated that, by 2018, two-thirds of all jobs will require education beyond high school, but […]

What is an internship An inventory and analysis of internship opportunities available to Ontario postsecondary students

Ontario postsecondary internship programs should emphasize educational quality There is significant variation in the structure of internship programs offered in Ontario’s colleges and universities – from length of program to requirements for completion. But a new study from the Higher Education Quality Council (HEQCO) also finds that when viewed through the lens of experiential learning […]