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Sarah Brumwell and Jackie Pichette — Behind the numbers: How students are using a free skills-training platform

In 2017, the Ontario Government purchased three years of blanket access to the self-service online learning platform Lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning) for the province’s public colleges and universities. eCampusOntario, tasked with managing the licence, partnered with HEQCO to evaluate the potential for this investment to help address perceived skills gaps among Ontario’s postsecondary students. As part of […]

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Jackie Pichette and Rosanna Tamburri — An agile system of lifelong learning is needed now more than ever

Measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 have left the economy reeling. Employment in Ontario fell by a record 403,000 jobs, or 5.3%, in March from February, according to Statistics Canada. The province’s unemployment rate rose to 7.6%, up from 5.5%, the largest monthly increase on record.* No one could have predicted the severity of the COVID-19 […]

Gendered Returns to Cognitive Skills in Canada

Higher earning workers derive greater benefit from skill levels than lower paid counterparts Canadian workers who hold higher paying jobs derive greater benefit from having higher literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills than those at the lower end of the wage spectrum, according to a new report published by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario […]

Evaluating Lynda.com Platform Usage: An Analysis of 2018–19 User Data

80,000 postsecondary students, faculty and staff made free use of Lynda.com library in 2018–19 About 80,000 Ontario postsecondary students, faculty and staff took advantage of free access to a library of video tutorials provided by Lynda.com during the 2018–19 school year, according to a report that analyzed usage data on the online learning platform owned […]

Great Divide or Small Fissure? A Comparison of Skills, Education and Earnings across Standard and Non-standard Workers

Higher skill and educational levels lead to greater job security, higher earnings Canadian workers with higher levels of education are more likely to be employed in permanent, full-time jobs while those with higher literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills are likely to earn more money, according to a new report examining the relationship between skills, educational […]

Lifelong Learning in Ontario: Improved Options for Mid-career, Underserved Learners

Report calls on Ontario PSE institutions to introduce programs for displaced workers, adult learners As Ontario’s economy continues to undergo rapid change, the province’s colleges and universities will need to introduce new short-term, flexible training programs that cater to the needs of displaced workers and other adult learners, recommends a new report by the Higher […]

Postsecondary Education Metrics for the 21st Century

Time to introduce new postsecondary performance metrics, report argues Ontario’s postsecondary education system would be best served by a set of performance metrics that would measure, among other things, the skills students acquire during their studies, the link between programs and job success, and institutional financial performance, argues a new paper by the Higher Education […]

Minding the Gap? Ontario Postsecondary Students’ Perceptions on the State of Their Skills

Ontario students perceive gap between skills learned in postsecondary and those needed in the workplace Postsecondary students perceive a gap between the skills they think they will need in their future careers and those they are developing while in university or college, according to a survey conducted by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario […]

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Harvey P. Weingarten — Skills in postsecondary education: Where to now?

We recently published a series of reports describing the skill levels of entering and graduating postsecondary students. The most telling observation made in those reports is that too few students are graduating with superior literacy and numeracy skills and too many — about one in four — are graduating with literacy and numeracy levels that […]