Finance committee  We do have career practitioners in my province. They come to the schools and their focus is strictly on careers and working with students on careers. Having said that, it's not an easy thing. You can't just draw a line down the middle of a kid, part of it is psychological and par

Finance committee  Yes.

Finance committee  That's really not my area of expertise. I'm more in the area of the elementary and secondary school system and teachers.

Finance committee  There's a lot of really original, creative stuff going on in different schools across Canada. I think we're always willing to look at partnerships and collaboration. One principle we would hold to is that in a publicly funded education system, the basic principle is equity for al

Finance committee  I think there are a lot of interesting and original things going on in schools right now that may not be all that well known. For example, I can think of a program at a high school near where I worked where they had taken the physics 20-30 program and merged it with a program hel

Finance committee  I can't speak for the school boards, but I do know that teacher organizations are very interested in maintaining positive working relationships with the school boards in their provinces and territories, and also with their ministries of education and their governments. If we can

Finance committee  It varies.

Finance committee  Through the funding they receive from their department, the school boards make every effort possible to keep the programs. However, I couldn't tell you exactly which provinces do better.

Finance committee  I think it is important for young people to have a good understanding of their skills and abilities as they grow up. There's nothing wrong with helping and supporting them as they explore various possibilities. It's certainly positive. It's also possible in Grade 9 and 10 to tak

Finance committee  They did not to my knowledge, but I just don't know.

Finance committee  Guidance programs have improved significantly in recent years. A number of provincial governments have identified careers, particularly trades, as a priority. I know that, in general, some schools put much more focus on information about trades than they did 10 years ago. It's im

Finance committee  What I would suggest is that Stats Canada use the internationally recognized standards of measure for those two items, particularly underemployment. The current statistics that they're developing don't use those measures so it would aid in terms of comparability.

Finance committee  I would say the purpose of the elementary and secondary public education system is to provide students with a set of skills that they can use in any area of study that they choose to pursue or any workplace. In terms of some of those I mentioned, problem solving and critical thin

Finance committee  Actually, in a number of schools that I know of in my own province they have a career education specialist. I'm not sure of the extent of that in other provinces, but that is something we've used. I think the point is that students do need help with good information about the la

Finance committee  If I could go back to that national job creation strategy—