#mobile classroom

“Colleges have long proven nimble in the face of disruption, but they’re now becoming more aggressive in their attempts to create the right offerings for a changing job market. ‘This moment right now is really turning out to be the first big test of Canada’s college system,’ says Linda Franklin, president of Colleges Ontario, which represents the province’s 24 colleges... Colleges and technical institutes nationwide develop programs with advisory committees drawn from industry, familiar with up-to-the-minute trends, and are traditionally able to bring programs to market much faster than universities. Students have responded in kind – enrolment in the nation’s colleges has increased 34 per cent since 2000. That system has proven resilient, but as Franklin notes, ‘in some subjects nowadays, especially science and engineering, the pace of change is so quick that students can be out-of-date the day after they graduate.’”

“Along with micro-credentials, another emerging trend is advanced placement... [and] many colleges have begun working with specific employers... These kinds of changes should be seen not as radical, says Franklin, but as a natural and needed evolution. ‘We’re doing the same thing we’ve always done,’ she says. ‘We just have to do it faster than ever before.’”

The Globe and Mail, October 18, 2019: “The race to adapt to a changing job market,” by Matthew Halliday

The Globe and Mail, October 18, 2019: “Colleges get an ‘A’ for launching creative careers,” by Kira Vermond

The Globe and Mail, October 18, 2019: “’On the cutting edge’: Canada’s college researchers filling innovation gaps,” by Saira Peesker