More Ontario students turning to colleges
More students are seeing the value in a college education, which is increasing enrolment rates in Ontario, according to the latest figures from Colleges Ontario.
“Our business and industry leaders are urgently calling for innovative, technically skilled workers and today’s students are listening — they want to graduate to good jobs,” said Linda Franklin, president and chief executive officer of Colleges Ontario.
In 2008, 95,805 first-year students enrolled in a college program at one of Ontario’s 24 community colleges, up 5.6 per cent from last year. This is partly due to increased public awareness about how college graduates can help solve the pending labour shortage, said Franklin.
The Conference Board of Canada is predicting Ontario will face a shortage of more than 360,000 skilled workers by 2025. In 2007, 309,000 jobs went unfilled for more than four months and employers surveyed by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business are more likely to need college graduates than university graduates to fill these openings.
Most employers (93 per cent) are satisfied or very satisfied with college graduates they hire, according to an annual survey by Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. And the education pays off for students, as 90 per cent find a job within six months of graduation and, once employed, they earn a 15.1-per-cent annual return on their investment of time and money, according to a study by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges.
While the report doesn’t have a Canadian comparison, studies in the United States have found a return on investment for university graduates to be between seven and 10 per cent. (See sidebar for more details.)
College instructors often come from the private sector and are able to tailor the curriculum to meet the needs of the market, said Franklin, which makes the students work-ready.
“College graduates tend to be able to hit the ground running,” she said.
While the BC Colleges and Institutes doesn’t have the final 2008 enrolment numbers, there is a marked upward trend, said Jim Reed, president of the provincial association in British Columbia. That increase ranges from two per cent to 10 per cent and he expects an average increase on par with Ontario’s.
Enrolment has been softer in the university transfer programs, where students complete the first two years of a university degree at a college and then finish the program at a degree-granting institution. But there has been steady growth in applied programs including construction trades and nursing, said Reed.
“Where we have consistently been strong are in the career technical and trades areas where employers are looking for students to graduate with an advanced skill of some kind,” said Reed.
And it’s that kind of practical and applied training that makes college students so attractive to employers, he said.
“They’re highly marketable in terms of employment.”
That marketability is helped by program advisory committees in each of the 50 communities where the province’s 12 colleges reside. These committees comprise faculty and employers that work together to ensure the programs are responding to employer needs, he said.
“It’s the most effective way we’ve found to have our finger on the pulse of what employers need in terms of graduates coming out of the college,” he said. “The graduate is actually equipped with the education and advanced skills that will make them job-ready and a productive contributor to the employer’s workforce.”
Universities aren’t as inclined to be connected to employers in this way because the curriculum is more focused on advanced studies and research, said Reed.
However, university enrolment has also been increasing. In 2005-2006 (the most recent year for which Statistics Canada data is available) 1.05 million students registered for classes across Canada, representing a three-per-cent increase from the 2004-2005 academic year.
These increased enrolment numbers will likely continue over the next few years. Post-secondary enrolments tend to be lower when the economy is doing well because students choose high paying jobs over classes, and enrolments increase when the economy slows down, said Reed.
Value of college
15-per-cent return on investment
College, institute and polytechnic students earn a 15.1-per-cent annual return on their investment of time and money, according to a study by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. Governments also see an annual 15.9-per-cent return on investment in these institutions and fully recover their investment in fewer than nine years.
Other findings include:
• $36,582 — average annual earnings of a student with a one- or two-year certificate (35 per cent more than someone without a high school diploma and 12 per cent more than a student with a high school diploma)
• $41,937 —average earnings of someone with a two- or three-year diploma (54 per cent more than someone without a high school diploma and 29 per cent more than a student with a high school diploma)
• $123.2 billion — annual contribution of colleges, institutes and polytechnics to the economy, about eight per cent of annual economic growth
• $215.1 million — annual savings from improved health and reduced welfare, unemployment and crime because of colleges, institutes and polytechnics.
“Our business and industry leaders are urgently calling for innovative, technically skilled workers and today’s students are listening — they want to graduate to good jobs,” said Linda Franklin, president and chief executive officer of Colleges Ontario.
In 2008, 95,805 first-year students enrolled in a college program at one of Ontario’s 24 community colleges, up 5.6 per cent from last year. This is partly due to increased public awareness about how college graduates can help solve the pending labour shortage, said Franklin.
The Conference Board of Canada is predicting Ontario will face a shortage of more than 360,000 skilled workers by 2025. In 2007, 309,000 jobs went unfilled for more than four months and employers surveyed by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business are more likely to need college graduates than university graduates to fill these openings.
Most employers (93 per cent) are satisfied or very satisfied with college graduates they hire, according to an annual survey by Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. And the education pays off for students, as 90 per cent find a job within six months of graduation and, once employed, they earn a 15.1-per-cent annual return on their investment of time and money, according to a study by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges.
While the report doesn’t have a Canadian comparison, studies in the United States have found a return on investment for university graduates to be between seven and 10 per cent. (See sidebar for more details.)
College instructors often come from the private sector and are able to tailor the curriculum to meet the needs of the market, said Franklin, which makes the students work-ready.
“College graduates tend to be able to hit the ground running,” she said.
While the BC Colleges and Institutes doesn’t have the final 2008 enrolment numbers, there is a marked upward trend, said Jim Reed, president of the provincial association in British Columbia. That increase ranges from two per cent to 10 per cent and he expects an average increase on par with Ontario’s.
Enrolment has been softer in the university transfer programs, where students complete the first two years of a university degree at a college and then finish the program at a degree-granting institution. But there has been steady growth in applied programs including construction trades and nursing, said Reed.
“Where we have consistently been strong are in the career technical and trades areas where employers are looking for students to graduate with an advanced skill of some kind,” said Reed.
And it’s that kind of practical and applied training that makes college students so attractive to employers, he said.
“They’re highly marketable in terms of employment.”
That marketability is helped by program advisory committees in each of the 50 communities where the province’s 12 colleges reside. These committees comprise faculty and employers that work together to ensure the programs are responding to employer needs, he said.
“It’s the most effective way we’ve found to have our finger on the pulse of what employers need in terms of graduates coming out of the college,” he said. “The graduate is actually equipped with the education and advanced skills that will make them job-ready and a productive contributor to the employer’s workforce.”
Universities aren’t as inclined to be connected to employers in this way because the curriculum is more focused on advanced studies and research, said Reed.
However, university enrolment has also been increasing. In 2005-2006 (the most recent year for which Statistics Canada data is available) 1.05 million students registered for classes across Canada, representing a three-per-cent increase from the 2004-2005 academic year.
These increased enrolment numbers will likely continue over the next few years. Post-secondary enrolments tend to be lower when the economy is doing well because students choose high paying jobs over classes, and enrolments increase when the economy slows down, said Reed.
Value of college
15-per-cent return on investment
College, institute and polytechnic students earn a 15.1-per-cent annual return on their investment of time and money, according to a study by the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. Governments also see an annual 15.9-per-cent return on investment in these institutions and fully recover their investment in fewer than nine years.
Other findings include:
• $36,582 — average annual earnings of a student with a one- or two-year certificate (35 per cent more than someone without a high school diploma and 12 per cent more than a student with a high school diploma)
• $41,937 —average earnings of someone with a two- or three-year diploma (54 per cent more than someone without a high school diploma and 29 per cent more than a student with a high school diploma)
• $123.2 billion — annual contribution of colleges, institutes and polytechnics to the economy, about eight per cent of annual economic growth
• $215.1 million — annual savings from improved health and reduced welfare, unemployment and crime because of colleges, institutes and polytechnics.
