I'm sorry about that.
When we look at the income levels and the fact that incomes rise with education, age, and experience in the labour market, we can see that the income levels for those with college and trade certificates are well above those with high school certificates for people of all ages. The income levels for those with university degrees are also higher and continuing to rise over time. There's a kind of matching here of labour market growth.
We've seen a huge growth in the number of people with university and college degrees, and the fact that the income premium for those graduates continues to grow shows, as Nobina mentioned, that it's not McJobs that these people are going into.
The match between the labour market supply and the labour market demand that we've seen over the last 20 years has kept things in relative balance. We've seen the premium continue to hold steady or continue to rise.
However, as Jim noted, the future is a lot different when we look at the trends that are taking place. Take the doubling of our population 65 plus and compare that to the change in the potential labour market growth—the population of those 25 to 64 growing by about 8% in the next few years and then levelling out. What do we have to do? We don't have enough people within that 25- to 64-year-old group. We need to make sure that those who are in that group have as much access to post-secondary education as possible. With education, employment rates rise. With employment rates, income levels rise as well.
So what can we do? One of the things that's most important, as we look forward, is how to not only increase access to post-secondary education but also make sure that the quality of the educational experience is as strong as possible. That way, the graduates we do have can contribute to the kind of growth and the kind of additional needs that an aging population will place on our economy and on our society.
Where will the jobs be in the next 20 years? I can't truthfully predict, as your former witnesses before this committee also told you, exactly where the jobs will be in 20 years' time, in which occupations. Many of those occupations don't exist today.
I can tell you that universities develop students, personally and professionally, so that they can adapt to changing labour market needs and changing labour market demands. It's amazing when you look at an occupation like computer programmers. About 40% of people with bachelor's degrees who are doing computer programming have a computer science degree. About 23% come from various engineering disciplines. Another 10% come from business programs. The rest come from English and geography and a whole host of other disciplines.
Why? Because they can adapt and learn on the job. They can learn at Nobina's institution and at universities, taking certificates in computer science and other areas, because they're adaptable, because they're lifelong learners. That's the kind of graduate we need to meet shifting labour market demands and occupational profiles that we cannot begin to project 20 years out.
We can look at the skill requirements of the total labour market, but within specific occupations we have a much more difficult time. This is why universities are doing all they can to enhance the quality of the undergraduate experience. A high-quality learning experience produces more engaged and productive students who, upon graduation, are going to become our next generation of lawyers, doctors, managers, scientists, social workers, leaders, and innovators. That's the kind of graduate we're looking for into the future.
Our members have developed, through their academic plans, ways to integrate their academic programs with the local community and with the private sector. Well over half of our institutions have links with the private sector and private sector advisers to update their curricula, to help institutions set enrolment targets, and to help them devise the kinds of programs that will be beneficial for their students in the decades ahead.
Universities are also working with the private sector to create far more co-op experiences. Through experiences with the private sector, communities, volunteer organizations, practicums, co-ops, internships, and field placements, students can connect their learning—they're learning while they're learning—with private sector and community-based employers.
It's really important that universities develop these things. Right now, about four in ten students have that kind of opportunity by the time they graduate. We're working with employers to make sure we can do more of that in the future.
What other kinds of things can we do here, as a committee, as we move forward? What are the things to think about in addition to what others have talked about?
Well, Canada lacks on-the-job training. Our employers don't train in the same way that other countries do, and certainly not with the same number of hours they provide in on-the-job training to their employees.
We have a lot to learn from what others are doing. PSE institutions across Canada are really quite prepared to work with employers to make sure that those kinds of on-the-job training and that kind of cooperative experience with our students is one way to increase the interaction between post-secondary institutions and the needs of the labour market.
We need to increase the participation of under-represented groups, especially aboriginal Canadians. There are about 460,000 aboriginal Canadians under the age of 20 right now. That group is a prime market. Their high school completion rates are less than half that of the rest of the population. Their university completion rates are less than a third of those of the rest of the population. There are a lot of ways to improve and increase the labour force participation rate and the university participation rates of our aboriginal Canadians, so that they too can contribute to and participate in the kinds of jobs the future holds.
Third, we need to provide more hands-on training for our students. All PSE institutions are trying to connect their students with local companies. As was mentioned earlier, about 98% of our companies are small and medium-sized enterprises that are looking for and need the kind of support that would allow them to benefit from having a university or college graduate in their place of work.
Finally, there is a lot more we can do to improve the transmission of labour market information. We have all kinds of it. We need to make sure that what we do have is as reliable as possible and that we can build on what we have and in fact share it.
I have so much labour market information that I can't begin to share with you; I can tell you the occupational profile of every type of graduate, such as social science graduates, and what occupation they work in. We need to get that kind of information out there so that employers and students see that the career paths for students in a whole array of disciplines—university or college—lead to solid career paths down the line.
I'll leave it there. I look forward to your questions.