Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you for inviting me here today. The Business-Higher Education Roundtable, or BHER for short, brings together leaders from some of Canada's largest companies and top post-secondary institutions from all regions of the country and a wide array of industries.
Created by the Business Council of Canada in 2015, BHER has three central objectives: to assist young Canadians as they transition from school to work, to strengthen Canada's research and commercialization capacity, and to help employers adapt to the economy of the future.
When we think about Canada's economic future, there are a lot of uncertainties. Our biggest trading relationship is under a cloud, digital disruption is eliminating some jobs while creating others, and whether we like it or not, our population is aging. That's bound to create serious labour market and fiscal challenges.
In the face of this uncertainty, we believe it is time for the Government of Canada to focus on something that it can control: helping young Canadians prepare for the skills economy of tomorrow. We believe that the most efficient and effective way to prepare Canada's youth for the coming skills revolution is to embrace work-integrated learning or WIL. Our research shows that WIL experiences like co-ops, internships, apprenticeships and applied research projects provide meaningful learning opportunities for students and a pathway for career success.
My colleagues and I spent the summer building a coalition of more than 25 national organizations and associations representing students, employers and institutions, and all agree that now is the time to act. Now is the time to ensure that every post-secondary student in Canada has the opportunity to complete a meaningful work experience before they graduate. Because these groups all feel so strongly about the importance of WIL, they joined together to formally endorse BHER's recommendations to this committee, one of which is to recognize the need for a national WIL strategy.
What does this look like in practical terms? Right now roughly four out of 10 PSE students have an opportunity to participate in WIL. That gap in real numbers represents 150,000 students per year who do not. Therefore, they're missing out on that opportunity. A national WIL strategy would focus the efforts of employers, educators and governments, both federal and provincial, and it would allow us to achieve our goal of 100% WIL in the most effective and efficient way possible.
In recent days I've been asked questions that perhaps some of you are wondering about as well. Why should the Government of Canada get involved in this and how? My answer is pretty simple. The federal government is already involved in WIL. Budget 2016 committed $73 million through their student work placement program. This program provides funding to industry associations that in turn create WIL pilot programs, including wage subsidies, to employers who offer quality WIL placements.
The wait-list for participation in these pilots is long, and early evaluation outcomes are positive. We believe there's a huge opportunity to expand those programs that are already taking place, and to help us close that gap of 150,000. Employers and educators are already acting and they're willing to step up these efforts, but there is an important role for the federal government as well.
To get us there, we're asking the federal government to do four things. The first thing is to expand the programs that you are already funding to increase employer participation. These incentives are especially critical for small and medium-sized companies, and under-represented groups including first nations, Métis and Inuit students.
Second, we need to fund a national platform that helps connect employers, educators and students. This will increase the supply of quality placements that employers are able to offer, in turn motivating post-secondary institutions to adapt and build more WIL into their programs.
Third, build WIL into the innovation superclusters initiative and the economic strategy table recommendations. These initiatives already have committed industry leaders around the table, men and women who are anxious to help develop the talent pipeline they need to succeed.
Fourth, work with us. I'm not here today to ask you to create a strategy, and we're not looking for the government to do the heavy lifting. We need your support to get started. As I said off the top, we spent the summer building a broad coalition of partners ready to come together to execute this national WIL strategy that we've created. The federal government has an important role to play, but this is certainly not its responsibility alone.
We recognize and thank the Government of Canada for the commitments it has already made and urge you to continue creating new opportunities for young people, breaking down barriers that prevent Canadians from reaching their full potential.
Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today. I'd be happy to answer questions.