Educational institutions gearing towards technical programs

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

Census data released by Statistics Canada on the country’s educational portrait yesterday revealed Quebec and Montreal have the highest proportion of adults who have obtained a trade, and local postsecondary educational institutions are tailoring their curriculum options to this changing landscape.

“When we have a bad economy, or a difficult economy as far as jobs are concerned, enrolment goes up in the technical side of colleges. When the economy is very good, we have high enrolment in pre-university programs,” explained Keith W. Henderson, John Abbott College’s director general. He added that, while the economy has not been terrible, the general perception seems to be otherwise. “Everyone’s been making dire predictions.”

Data from Census 2006 showed about 18 per cent of Quebec adults between 25 and 64 years old had a trade certificate, which is the highest proportion of all the provinces and territories. Quebec also had a higher proportion of young adults with a trade certificate: about 19 per cent of Quebecers aged between 25 and 34 had a trade, compared to 15 per cent of people between 55 and 64 year old. In the Montreal metropolitan area, 15 per cent had obtained a trade, which is also the highest out of the largest census metropolitan areas in Canada.

John Abbott is currently working on new three-year career programs (as opposed to the two year pre-university programs), such as pre-hospital emergency care and a bio-pharmaceutical program, that will be added to the Ste. Anne de Bellevue CEGEP’s list of programs over the next few years. The college is also in the process of determining the site of their new science and technology building, which will accommodate the new programs, as well as the school’s increasing student population.

“Our challenge is to build facilities and renovate so we can accept the students who apply to the college. We’re in the unfortunate position of having to refuse more and more students every year,” Henderson said.

Henderson also said the needs of the job market play a significant role in what new ideas and programs the college pursues. “We’re going into a period of extreme shortage of technicians in almost all sectors of the economy,” he said, adding the job placement rate for the college’s technical programs is at or near 100 per cent. The business intelligence (BI) program added to the college’s continuing education lists is an example. “We always have our antennae out there to look at what industries are in a shortage.”

According to the Census 2006 data, 18 per cent of Quebec adults had a college diploma, the lowest proportion in the country. That ratio was at 17 per cent for Montreal.

As for university, 21 per cent of Quebec adults had a university degree, compared to 27 per cent in Montreal.

About 21 per cent of Quebec adults surveyed had a high school diploma as their highest level completed, while 17 per cent had not finished their high school education.