Yes, it's worth pursuing. I think it's perhaps slightly more complex than it looks on the face of it.
Aboriginal students have very low grade 12 education rates, and low rates passing through secondary school and getting to universities and colleges. There's a host of reasons why that is. I think addressing them across the spectrum is really what's required.
Doing programs that suit aptitudes is bang on, of course, and doing programs that suit the location of the labour market is critical as well, of course. You need to match those two things up.
There's a first nations education summit closing panel going on at the conference centre today talking about education in particular. Aboriginal students need a host of programs and supports just to get there, and to make it through college.
It's great to have those programs that are suited, adapted, and have special entrance streams, and all of those sorts of issues. But, for example, housing in centres where there are colleges, which is generally urban centres, is a huge issue for aboriginal students. Where are they going to live?
There are also cultural supports that are needed for them when they come. This is the issue friendship centres were created from in the 1950s. When you're coming from a rural or remote or reserve area to a city, it's like coming to a foreign country.