Western Canada's universities, colleges and technical schools rise to the socio-economic challenges facing Canada.
THINKING WEST
Arming Canada’s youth with world-class education is critical to the health of Canada’s future economy, and Western Canada’s universities, colleges and technical schools are meeting the challenge.
At the University of British Columbia, for example, a new graduate business program answers the perennial question: How can graduates profitably translate the critical thinking, technical and creative skills achieved through their undergraduate degrees to the world of business without years of additional experience on the job?
The first of its kind in Canada, Early Career Masters is a one-year program in business with an optional co-op or internship component. Grads receive a “Master of Management” degree, a common and popular degree in Europe, designed especially for recent grads of non-business programs such as arts, science and engineering.
“We’ve found that a lot of students feel that they’re lacking some skills that they could use to help market themselves to employers, and that’s something that the Early Career Masters can deliver,” says Arthur Redillas, associate director of admissions and recruitment, Masters Programs Office at the Sauder School of Business. “It’s also something that employers are looking for: Employers value the skills that graduates bring, but sometimes find that recent graduates don’t have a lot of knowledge about business, so it takes a bit longer to train them. This degree is an opportunity to accelerate into junior management positions and leadership roles earlier.”
Students want to know how employable they will be at the end of their studies, says Mr. Redillas, and career development modules are part of the program. (Making the program even more attractive, the British Columbia provincial government is providing $10,000 grants for Bachelor of Science and technology graduates.)
In Saskatoon, the University of Saskatchewan has a long history of educating the province’s most accomplished citizens. “Saskatchewan is geographically a very big province, twice the size of Germany, with a population of just over one million people,” says president Peter MacKinnon. “Our Aboriginal population is 14 per cent of the provincial population, and there are a lot of remote communities here. We work with local communities and the province’s regional college system to help provide accessible education, and on-site education where we are able to do that – it’s very important.”
The University of Saskatchewan is recognized for its ability to translate research and academic achievement into profitable business initiatives, efforts that are supported by the institution’s focus on entrepreneurialism.
“It’s important to our province for us to attract more young people and to keep more young graduates in the university – we want to create and develop opportunities in Saskatchewan. Entrepreneurship can be studied; it is an area of learning that can be acquired,” says Mr. MacKinnon.
In 2007, the university attracted more than $150 million in research funding, placing it among the leading research intensive universities in the country. “Universities have a duty not only to convey knowledge, but to discover new knowledge,” says Mr. MacKinnon. “The research opportunities available on campus are one of the great advantages of our university – we can offer undergraduate and grad students fabulous research opportunities.”
Across Western Canada, colleges are also helping meet the knowledge gap challenge, in part, by offering university curriculums. In Calgary, Mount Royal now offers 13 baccalaureate degrees ranging from interior design and communication studies to majors in accounting, human resources and entrepreneurship studies as well as arts and science degrees. President David Marshall says, “We spent the last decade getting ready to meet the undergraduate baccalaureate access needs, not only in our city, but throughout Alberta and beyond.”
To help meet the human resource needs of the energy industry, for example, Mount Royal has partnered with sector partners to train and educate professionals in human resources, accounting, marketing and communication divisions.
Addressing the growing nursing shortage in Alberta and across the country, the college offers a four-year nursing degree that currently as more than 1,000 students, but also offers a program for foreign-trained nurses. “There are many places in the world that provide outstanding nursing preparation work, but many foreign-trained nurses need some transition work in order to work in Canadian hospital environments,” says Dr. Marshall. “We’ve designed a two-step process: Foreign nurses are assessed, and for students admitted to the program, we can fill that gap with the full calendar year program, accelerating nurses into the Canadian health care system.”
Institutions work in close partnership with the government to develop all of the programs and the environment necessary to deliver university credentials, he says. “There is national support for institutions like Mount Royal filling the accessibility gap in undergraduate university education.”
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