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Category: Apprenticeships, Skills & Trades

Memory Lane on Skills Shortages

Cast your mind back to 2012 or so.  The Conservative Party was in its sixth year of office, but just getting into the swing of a real majority.  The craziest thing we had to worry about in American politics was a 6-day outbreak of Santorum-mania.  Gagnam was in style.   And the one phrase on everyone’s lips was “skills shortage”. Under the Tories, “skills” was code for “trades” (as opposed to now under the Liberals when “skills” is code for “coding”). 

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September 18, 2018 No Comments

A Decline in Apprenticeships?

[the_ad id=”12709″] A few years ago, I made the observation that Canada’s big run-up in apprenticeship numbers was highly correlated with the commodity price super-cycle (in particular, the price of oil) and that an era of low energy/commodity prices might lead to a big decrease in demand for apprentices.  Time to check on that prediction. So, first thing to note is that apprentice numbers are down a bit over the last couple of years.  Probably not as much as expected if one

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June 14, 2018 1 Comment

FutureSkills Lab

Hey, does anyone remember FutureSkills Lab?  That big idea that came out of the Barton Committee about a year and a half ago and included in the 2017 budget with at least moderate amounts of fanfare?  The one that was supposed to “identify skill gaps with employers, explore new and innovative approaches to skills development and share information so that Canadians are well equipped for opportunities in the new economy”? It kind of seems to have died a quiet death,

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May 8, 2018 No Comments

(Another) New Report on Skills

Late last week the Business Higher Education Roundtable published the results of a survey of its members (big Canadian businesses) on the issue of skills.  The results were…intriguing. Let’s start with the classic question: are there skills shortages?  Here’s what respondents said. Figure 1: To What Degree are Skill Shortages an Issue for your Sector/Company? Yes, there are skills shortages, but a) not many think they are that significant, and big business thinks they’re better insulated than other companies in

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April 10, 2018 1 Comment

Humans Wanted

On Monday, the Royal Bank put out an interesting…well, what was it?  Research Paper?  Discussion Paper?  Idea-concept thingy?…called Humans Wanted: How Canadian Youth Can Thrive in the Age of Disruption.  It’s a bit of a mixed bag as a paper, but ultimately it’s not a bad start to the RBC’s “FutureLaunch” project on youth and skills. The core of the paper is an examination of jobs and skills in the new economy, their vulnerability to automation and their growth potential using

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March 28, 2018 1 Comment

One Thought to Start Your Day

One Thought to Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usher’s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on today’s higher education industry.

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