Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Madam Chair, ladies and gentlemen, as we have been introduced, I am Yaroslaw Zajac, the executive director of the Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists. Beside me is Mr. Isidore LeBlond, who is the manager of program development at the Canadian council.
We wish to thank you most sincerely for inviting us. We are pleased that the work we have been doing in encouraging young women to consider careers in technology has in fact been brought to your attention, and hence this invitation to speak before you. Thank you very much for that. It is much appreciated.
Let me start by way of introducing CCTT as the national federation of ten provincial bodies that certify technicians and technologists across this country. We are also the body that accredits technology programs in community colleges across this country. At this moment there are over 250 accredited technology programs that produce the skills that our future economy needs.
We represent about 53,000 certified technicians and technologists. Of those, I am sorry to say, only 8.3% are women. We are very concerned that this participation of women in this very important profession is so low. We are very cognizant of the human questions that you as a committee of Parliament have addressed. You have addressed issues of respect, of opportunity to get ahead in life, of avoidance of that glass ceiling that you all speak about. These are all vitally important human issues.
I would also like to put before this committee a question that relates to the same issue but from an economic point of view. If you think about the growth of the Canadian economy, then I put it to you that there is a centrality of technicians, technologists, and engineers to that growth. If growth in productivity within the economy is dependent upon innovation, then in fact it is the engineers who are generally the conceptors, the technologists who are there to take concepts and make them real by putting together systems, by sourcing systems, by making all those systems work, and then there are the technicians who operate and maintain. This is true for every sector of the Canadian economy, be it resources, services, manufacturing, or whatever.
In fact, if you look at productivity gains in whatever sector you wish to look at in Canada, they can only be enabled by technology. Think of a hospital. Think of a hotel. Those are service industries. They need technology and therefore they need the technology professionals to put them together. Take a look at that picture and say okay, there are only 8.3% women of this entire cadre of technicians and technologists in Canada. National statistics indicate that while there are 53,000 technicians and technologists, there are in fact 375,000 working as technicians and technologists. Our recent study done together with Engineers Canada has shown that the participation of women in that profession is only 19%.
Now, think about it this way. If you look at current projections of the cohort who is going into post-secondary education, last year, 2009, that cohort of 15- to 19-year-olds peaked and it will be steadily decreasing down and down. What that means is fewer people of post-secondary education age are coming into that level of schooling. And if you say that within that group only 19% are women within the technology professions, then that 19%, in absolute numbers, will also continue to go down and down, literally, in the next ten years.
What we're looking at is the need to increase total numbers of technicians, technologists, and professionals working in the technology fields, and we need to ensure that the 19%, which in absolute terms is going lower and lower, actually increases.
We're looking not just for gender equality; I suggest that we should be looking for gender balance, because we need more and more women in that economy. We need more women in the central factor that drives our economy, and therefore it is vitally important to look at ways in which we can indicate to young women that a career in the technology professions is of interest, is rewarding, and is contributing to the strengthed economy. For that reason we are busily working to encourage young people, and young women in particular, to consider careers in technology.
With that, I'll give the floor to my colleague, Isidore LeBlond.