The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

Category: Apprenticeships, Skills & Trades

HoC Finance Committee Report: the Oys Have It

Yesterday I riffed on the possibility of a Skills Budget. Today I want to focus on some early clues about what’s in the upcoming budget by parsing last month’s pre-budget consultation report of the House of Commons Finance Committee. To put this in some kind of context: a Finance Committee report may bear no resemblance whatsoever to the final budget project.  Basically, the chair of the finance committee (currently PEI’s Wayne Easter) takes dictation from the Finance Minister with respect to

Read More »
January 10, 2019 1 Comment

The Tightening Labour Market

Yesterday, I took a quick trip back to the early part of the decade for a reminder of how bad the “skills shortage” debate of 5-6 years ago was.  Today, I want to talk a little bit about how we may be heading into something like an actual skills shortage right now, and what the parameters of that shortage look like. The best place to look for evidence on general skills shortages is the Bank of Canada’s quarterly Business Outlook Survey.

Read More »
September 19, 2018 No Comments

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”). 

Read More »
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

Read More »
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,

Read More »
May 8, 2018 No Comments
Load More

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.

Subscribe

Search Posts

Search Publications

Social Media

Linkedin Youtube Spotify

Recent Posts

More thoughts on...