With constant economic and tech change-ups, continuing ed is getting ever more critical in an expanding list of fields.
According to the Conference Board of Canada, skills shortages are costing the province $24.3 billion in economic activity and $3.7 billion in tax revenues. Gaps are particularly prevalent in manufacturing, health care, finance and professional, scientific and technical services.
Moreover, employees working in jobs that don’t fully utilize their skills are costing Ontario $4.1 billion in forgone gross domestic product and $627 million in tax revenue.
One way to plug the leaks is through education targeted at professionals interested in upgrading and immigrants adapting to the Canadian marketplace.
At Ryerson’s University’s Chang School of Continuing Education, more than half of the students are new Canadians, many in government-backed skills-bridging certificate programs in areas such as social work, midwifery and dietetics.
As a former Ontario immigration minister, Marie Bountrogianni introduced some of those programs. But now, as Chang School interim dean, she’s concerned about the lack of funding to expand upgrading courses into high-demand areas like engineering.
“We’re moving a little too slowly,” she says of federal and provincial funding for these programs. “In fact, I’m worried funding will be cut with all these deficits that governments are obsessing over across the country. I would hope they would look at the big picture, as opposed to balancing a budget tomorrow.”
With these gaps in mind, here are a few professions and skill sets fuelling demand for continuing education across Southern Ontario.
Adult education
With demand for continuing ed comes a need for teachers to teach it. Administrators at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) are seeing increased demand for teaching programs aimed at adult educators, teachers working in online environments and ESL instructors. “Any programs that promote inclusion of new families and help teachers understand how important it is to embrace new cultures are very popular,” says Barbara Bodkin, director of continuing and professional learning at OISE.
Data and technology
The management and security of large information systems is an increasing challenge and, as such, Bountrogianni sees Ryerson’s newly introduced certificate in computer security and digital forensics evolving into a master’s program.
Health informatics is another growth area. As governments struggle to computerize personal medical records, hiring demands are expected to grow by 26 per cent in the next four years, according to Canada’s Health Informatics Association.
Project managers, leaders and entrepreneurs
Bountrogianni says there is a need for leadership, communication and project management skills across professions like architecture and engineering.
Courses in entrepreneurship are popular, and not just because the recession and government job cuts are making the self-employed route more attractive. Entrepreneurial thinking can help an intern or volunteer identify and create new positions within public and private sector organizations.
“As long as you have certain skills, whatever you study can get you employed,” Bountrogianni says, adding that the Chang School recently consulted businesses on mismatched skills and heard “over and over again that there are very highly educated graduates out there who don’t know how to write in the language of business.”
