Evidence of meeting #77 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was students.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:30 p.m.
Liberal
Ramesh Sangha Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
You've said that all three, the universities, the students, and the employees, have good collaboration with each other, so students who are going from one place to another don't have any problems.
4:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Internship and Work Placement Services, Université de Sherbrooke, As an Individual
From what I know, we don't have any problems with the federal government as an employer.
4:30 p.m.
Liberal
Ramesh Sangha Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
You don't find any obstacles in your way in terms of getting students for jobs for your programs?
4:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Internship and Work Placement Services, Université de Sherbrooke, As an Individual
From Sherbrooke's point of view, no, we don't have any major issues. Sure, last year we had a problem with the Phoenix pay system, but I think we're not alone on that, so I won't comment. With Environment Canada, for example, we have a really good partnership in our environmental programs. Let's say that it's not perfect, but I've seen worse.
4:30 p.m.
Liberal
Ramesh Sangha Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Is your program good for all types of trades, technical, science, law, and other fields?
4:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Internship and Work Placement Services, Université de Sherbrooke, As an Individual
Again, from what I know, because I don't have the particularities of every program—we have more than 48 programs—in the federal government, we have someone in programs in environment, engineering, and in mathematics, with Statistics Canada, and with administration. We have students in law, too, with the policy office of the federal government.
4:30 p.m.
Liberal
Ramesh Sangha Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Can you tell me something about the research program your university is doing? How is your university participating in that research program?
4:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Internship and Work Placement Services, Université de Sherbrooke, As an Individual
I'm sorry. I missed something there.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Ramesh Sangha Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Can you tell us more about your research project and your university's participation in the research program?
4:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Internship and Work Placement Services, Université de Sherbrooke, As an Individual
Originally, I think, that research program originated from the University of Waterloo. The central co-op office is at Waterloo. They ask every university and college that has co-op programs to send them all the statistics and information. Waterloo will do the compilation and make it available to everyone. So far, that's all I can say, because I don't have a lot of information about it. I'm sorry.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Ramesh Sangha Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
Thank you.
What are your suggestions to the committee for improvements for your program?
4:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Internship and Work Placement Services, Université de Sherbrooke, As an Individual
To that, I will say to work with Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada, our association. We've worked together for more than 50 years. We have universities all across Canada. I think it would be a good start if we can find a way for our organization to start, let's say,
an ongoing dialogue with the government and this committee.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Ramesh Sangha Liberal Brampton Centre, ON
I find you at number one in Quebec and number 10 in institutions in North America. Your programs are doing well. At this level, my question is, do you suggest any further improvements so this committee can assist you to do more, to do a better job?
4:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Internship and Work Placement Services, Université de Sherbrooke, As an Individual
Very briefly, I will say to make sure that our association has a say
in the new programs that you are going to put in place before they are implemented. It would be a lot easier.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Thank you.
I'll start with Mr. Slaney.
You talked about people being highly educated but finding no jobs. I've met with organizations, including the Workforce Development Board, that's within my local area.
I have some questions for you specifically. Do we see anything changing in our colleges and universities to make sure that the skills training people are receiving matches the jobs that are available today? If not, how can we do better?
4:35 p.m.
Director of Training, United Association Canada
In our case we're dealing with trades and technologies. We don't have the issues because we deal directly with our clients' owners and contractors and they tell us. We have joint committees that we work with. We meet with these people all the time and they say, “We need this, this, and this, and we have this particular job coming up.” We try to do a future forecast, as I was saying. We basically plan for a project that might never happen, so we have to be ready to train people just in time for that particular program. Being able to sit down with industry and get exactly what their plans are is the challenge because they don't want to sit down with just anybody.
4:35 p.m.
Director of Training, United Association Canada
A lot of times they have competitors that are bidding for the same work and we're talking to both of them, so they only give us so much information.
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Absolutely. That's something we really need to focus on as well.
Alain, maybe you can assist me with this as well.
A lot of time we are finding that people are graduating from skills programs but the schools are a few years behind what the actual industries need.
What are we doing to ratify that issue?
4:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Internship and Work Placement Services, Université de Sherbrooke, As an Individual
Since we are in constant contact with employers and we sit on the program committees of various faculties and schools, we can tweak the programs very quickly. That is the beauty of co-op programs. In engineering and computer science, there is a lot of demand right now. However, we have been able to suggest that the Faculty of Science integrate certain elements from the mathematics and physics program, so that, in terms of information technology, companies can also benefit from our students' knowledge of mathematics and science. That's what needs to be done, given the significant labour shortage in this area.
I would say that we are able to act fairly quickly because of our relationship with businesses. We will always have a slight delay, but it is only about six months at the moment.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Awesome.
Colleen, specifically, you're dealing with a lot of youth that are going to be.... What's the ceiling, 17 or 18, to come into this?
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
Their 19th birthday.
You're dealing with a lot of youth that are trying to make those really difficult decisions. I heard Ruth say it. They're 17 and trying to figure out what they're going to do with the rest of their lives.
Is there anything available? I recognize a lot of times it's at-risk youth or youth that already have some complications and challenges and barriers already that we need to deal with. Do you know if they have proper counselling when it comes to job and employment counselling? Is there anything available for students that you're aware of that will help them? I know sometimes the guidance counsellors back in the eighties were very pro university and now we're recognizing how colleges have such strengths as well.
Is there anything available in your communities that you're aware of that help children as well to get on that right path so that they can make some of these decisions? Sometimes it is very early but is there anything available?
