OPINION: Feds should bolster programs to support work-integrated learning

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Canada’s economy is being reshaped in real time. Trade disruptions and rapidly changing technologies are forcing businesses to adapt, and workers are expected to keep pace. When predicting skills needs becomes this complicated, education and training built for a previous generation are no longer fit for purpose.

Canada has two simultaneous challenges: businesses must become more productive, and people must be equipped with the skills the economy will depend on next. As Canada pursues major projects, massive investments in national defense and ambitious plans to be an energy superpower, the link between education and employment must be more robust.

Last year, more than one-third of Canadian businesses had trouble finding candidates with the skills they needed. There’s a better approach. To make businesses more productive and people better equipped, we need to double down on a proven but still small-scale solution: work-integrated learning.

Work-integrated learning is a bridge between learners and the labour market they will enter as employees. Students get opportunities to put their studies into context, gaining both workplace experience and confidence in their skills. Ideally, work-integrated learning gives a student a chance to prove themselves to a potential employer, build a professional network and gain experience they will carry into job interviews.

Yet an estimated 40% of Canadian students still lack access to work-integrated learning. We need to dramatically accelerate participation in work-integrated learning models across the country if we want the economy to flourish.

One important path forward is harnessing the expertise of Canada’s polytechnics, which are too often overlooked. Their strength is practical, industry-aligned training. Their programs prepare new entrants for high-demand skilled occupations and reach more than 150,000 mid-career workers each year. Their employer-connected models – which go far beyond simple co-op programs – bring business problems into classrooms and enable students to put their training to pragmatic use.

More important than ever

It’s a model that is more important than ever. It is also a source of inspiration for a broader spectrum of work-integrated learning.

Since 2021, the federal government’s Innovative Work-Integrated Learning (I-WIL) initiative, delivered through seven partners including Riipen, has supported more than 119,000 short-term work experiences. Importantly, 64% of I-WIL participants identified as members of underrepresented groups, demonstrating the potential of more flexible models to broaden access to work-integrated learning.

Six years in, I-WIL investments have generated partnerships, infrastructure and expertise with value beyond the individual work experiences it was created to deliver.

Consider GeoAlta Solutions, a Canadian smart-building technology SME. In just 130 hours, RRC Polytech students developed four environmental sensor prototypes, helping accelerate the company’s development timeline by an estimated six to 12 months. GeoAlta valued the work at approximately $45,000 in R&D savings while moving its technology closer to pilot testing and commercialization.

The need for work-integrated learning is sharpest among smaller firms, many of which have difficulty funding in-house training. Yet, employers have contributed more than $84 million in-kind to I-WIL, with 86 per cent of employers in Riipen’s programs reporting increased productivity and efficiency, stronger skills and greater productive capacity as a result of their experience.

Even more important, this approach supports skills training evolution alongside the economy. Rather than creating a new skills development architecture, I-WIL draws on the strengths of public post-secondary institutions like polytechnics, extending their impact to more businesses and students than any institution can reach independently.

Constant threat of cuts

Like most federal programs, however, funding is granted one budget cycle at a time. Programs like this work under constant threat of cuts or discontinuation. Sustained commitments are rare and the value of proven solutions are too often overlooked in favour of new policy experimentation.

In the current economic environment, a longer view is needed. The federal government must provide enduring investments for proven work-integrated learning models. This would help businesses and institutions lean into existing successful partnerships and expand to create others.

Canada is navigating one of its most consequential economic disruptions in decades. It will not be the last. Our success depends less on predicting what comes next than on how quickly our businesses, institutions and talent pipeline can respond together.

– Sarah Watts-Rynard is CEO at Polytechnics Canada.

– Dana Stephenson is CEO and Co-Founder of Riipen.

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