Education and Training Options

For companies to keep pace with the rapidly changing economy, business and industry agree that it is vitally important for education and training programs to provide workers with relevant knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. While students may think the knowledge gained in school is adequately preparing them for an occupation, they need to know that even fairly secure employees face a lifetime of continuous learning over the span of a career.

Formal learning can be in the form of education, training or development. Education focusses on changing knowledge in order to prepare the whole person for life experiences. Training focusses on changing applicable skills and knowledge to prepare workers to perform specific tasks in their evolving duties. Development focusses on changing attitudes or values to prepare staff for new challenges and new ways of viewing old challenges (adapted from Bartz et al., 1989, p. 164 and personal communication with P. Brennan, Association of Canadian Community Colleges, Nov. 14, 2000).

However, the demarcations between the types of learning are beginning to blur, as many workers find it necessary to acquire all three types of learning at once to prepare for new work roles. In some cases, consumers have had to take responsibility and search out ways to acquire what they need in bits and pieces from different programs. In other cases, institutions and organizations that once provided one type of learning almost exclusively are consolidating and organizing access to different types of learning to meet the demands of employers and consumers. They have been able to accomplish this through partnerships, and co-operative education and articulation programs.

The training and education employees bring into the labour market determine what jobs they can perform, creating areas where there are either enough qualified workers, too many or too few. The ability to continually provide the market with people who have the skills necessary to help companies grow and compete is crucial to building a healthy economy.

The need of Canadian employers for workers who are highly skilled puts a demand on the educational institutions and training programs to produce such workers. The length of time it takes to train or educate someone can lag behind the marketplace by three or four years if the demand has come up suddenly. During slow economic growth cycles, there is not the frantic push for industry to produce because people are not buying in recessionary times. This is a natural time for training. However, in the down time, many employers cannot afford to train in anticipation of a future upswing. Long-range policies which incorporate continuous upgrading and training into corporate strategies and budgets are being developed by government and industry in an attempt to deal with the supply and demand of well-trained workers.

Nursing is one example of an occupation struggling with the complicated issues of supply and demand. It has been particularly spotlighted because of the importance of health care in our society. In the early 1980s, there was a shortage of nurses. One contributing factor was that many qualified nurses were choosing not to work in their field. As the shortage became critical, colleges and universities raised their quotas for nursing students. Because of the time it takes to train qualified nurses, and the time it takes to change quotas in the institutions that train them, there has always been a lag in trying to adjust to the needs of the market.

By the time increased numbers of nurses were graduating, the situation was compounded by government cutbacks to hospitals and by the early 1990s recession, which caused many nurses to return to nursing or encouraged nurses already in the field to stay. The result was a surplus of nurses looking for full-time nursing jobs. Then, during the late 1990s, there was reduced application to many registered nursing education programs. In the ongoing attempt to control the pendulum swing, the quota was lowered again in many institutions as they moved the seats to other programs that were more in demand (Working Group on Nursing and Unregulated Health Care Workers, 2000, p. 7). The cycle continued heading into the new millennium as program places were reopened based on one of the biggest shortages ever facing the Canadian population.

The interaction of training with supply and demand of labour is also conspicuous in the labour situation of many foreign-trained professionals and tradespeople. These new Canadians, for the most part, experience a number of barriers, including language training, recognition of credentials and a lack of Canadian experience, which prohibit them from working in areas of demand. As a consequence, the market has been left with openings that cannot be filled. With retraining, these people can be prepared for the Canadian labour market, and become active participants in the work force rather than becoming part of the discouraged worker statistics.

The cyclical relationship between supply and demand for educated and trained workers is greatly affected by the specifics of demographic makeup of the population (aging of the population, increased number of immigrants), the economy (the strength of the U. S. economy and the low Canadian dollar) and the decentralization of training to the provinces. The cycle of supply and demand of educated/trained workers is represented in Figure 18.

The rest of this chapter focusses on different structures that provide education and training in a variety of formats to the lifelong learner.

Trends in Education/Training Formal mentoring and iternship programs: tourism, automotive, textile manager, culture (TV broadcasting). On-line courses for regular college and university programs: non-distance, e.g., heritage carpentry and public relations. On-line registration, payment, exam results, tutoring. Increased number of university graduates entering colleges (30% in larger colleges in 1999). Post-secondary private institution training increasing as university graduates seek to gain additional marketable skills quickly. Universities including more practical skills in their programs. Articulation programs between high schools and colleges, universities and colleges, certification bodies and colleges/universities, e.g., agriculture college and high school. Multimedia advertising of private training now focusses on E-commerce where recently it was Microsoft systems engineers. Just-in-time modules for busy executives: customized courses and programs (e.g., biotechnology managers). Distance education: never having to set foot in an institution, e.g., Athabasca University. Occupational analyses, standards and certification are increasing, e.g., career practitioners, trades, technicians and technologists. Volunteering is a growing method of achieving skills and experience, and recognized as legitimate work experience by most employers. It is acceptable to include volunteer work under work experience in portfolios and résumés. Partnerships between industry and educational institutions, e.g., automotive industry, telecommunications. Those industries that are aggressively recruiting and changing images are increasing joint activities with educational institutions: work experience placements, job shadowing or mentoring, guest or sessional lecturers, internship positions, curriculum design input and advisory bodies, sponsorship of courses or research programs, joint research and development programs, products and equipment for classrooms and research, career fairs, awards for excellence and innovation in education. Increasing tuition fees and increasing student debt. Internationalization of curriculum, students and faculty for operation in a global village. New existence of applied degrees (BA, BSc, BEng, Bcom) given by colleges and institutes of technology. Greater mobility of students and workers leading to pressure on institutions to develop national articulation, mobility and transferability agreements across provincial lines and across educational lines (school board - college - university).

A. Educational Structures that Feed the Labour Market

In the public domain, educational structures that feed the labour market vary, ranging from high school, to apprenticeship, to college and university. Entrance into the market can also be through private vocational institutions, association accreditation or training programs offered by employers, unions or social service organizations.

Those planning to enter the labour market should prepare their route carefully. Hidden variables can interfere even with the best of plans. Those who are unfamiliar with the system or who don't have a guide through it can miss out by not being aware of all the options or of the unwritten rules that will affect their opportunities.

When the client or student's situation is thoroughly investigated, it may become evident that any combination of factors, such as cost, location, language barriers, family situation, physical abilities and learning style, may require a custom-designed plan to reach the desired goal.

The happy ending to Jocelyn's story was due to the practitioner and client working out a plan that entailed a thorough investigation of aptitudes, interests, motivation, available resources and LMI.

Jocelyn's Story: Finding the Right Path

Jocelyn, a young, intelligent woman who was energetic, a good worker, motivated and had family support seemed to be the perfect candidate for a university program. In fact, all her teachers, her parents and the boss at her part-time job during high school urged her to go to university.

Jocelyn came for career counselling a year after she had finished her final year of high school. Feeling very pressured, she had forced herself to finish school and had then gone to work, much to her parents' disappointment. The aptitude test results showed her ability in all areas to be in the top 10 percentile, with some areas going off the scale. Her interest tests showed an entrepreneur with the lowest score on the "Comfort in Classroom Learning" scale the counsellor had ever seen.

Jocelyn was working two jobs. She had been made manager of her part-time job and was training new staff. In the full-time job, because she had shown interest and had solved some problems for the owner, she had been given the books (on a computer program) to manage and had taught herself in record time. This young woman was motivated to learn and loved what she was doing. She wanted a goal, to know where she was headed and, together, she and the counsellor developed a plan that didn't involve sitting in a classroom full time in a lecture-style situation but capitalized on her ability to learn quickly and her love of applying what she learned. While continuing to work full time, Jocelyn started taking a combination of correspondence courses and part-time practical courses that applied directly to her work. She received enough credits in this manner to motivate her to finish a financial management program in a regular, but part-time classroom setting. Her labour market research had shown good career prospects, with occupations in financial management showing above average growth.

If the people involved are willing to put in the time, there is usually an alternative route to be found that respects the individualized needs of the person seeking help.