Message from the CEO

Message from the CEO: Nobina Robinson

CEO, Polytechnics Canada 

In less than a decade, Polytechnics Canada has become the authoritative national voice for advanced applied education and applied research. Indeed, research and training that is responsive to business needs is a hallmark of our colleges, polytechnics and institutes of technology. Our members produce job-ready graduates with a wide range of applied and problem-solving skills—the practical knowledge that businesses demand. In short, we are user-driven, industry-responsive and learner-focused.

Governments increasingly recognize the role our members play in helping small and medium-sized businesses improve their productivity and enhance their innovative capacity. We have seen our suggestions incorporated in government programs and reflected in recent federal budgets.  Our opinions matter.

While our first priority remains advancing innovation through applied research and commercialization activities, we also speak out on other issues essential to Canada’s economic prosperity. Polytechnics Canada is vocal, for example, on vital issues such as the need to advance practical learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics; on ways to improve vocational training and apprenticeship completion rates; and on developing digital talent for our digital age.  Our members train a vast number of students for the high-quality jobs that will be a key driver of economic growth in Canada.  Polytechnic graduates with innovation and entrepreneurship skills, in addition to their highly specialized technical skills, are in high demand in all economic sectors across Canada.

Currently, the focus on the knowledge economy is largely around the need for people with more advanced degrees (understood to mean PhDs) and the need for more world-class science breakthroughs. Important as this is, successful innovation—as noted by this year’s OECD report on Workforce Skills and Innovation—is a more pervasive phenomenon that occurs throughout the operations of a firm and requires contributions from workers at all levels.

Our members offer 87—and growing—Bachelor degree programs fully recognized by provincial authorities.  We also provide a wide range of credentials from apprenticeships to diplomas to graduate certificates, and even Master’s degrees. But all our programs have one thing in common: they incorporate applied research into the curriculum.  Students and faculty share their applied research expertise to help companies innovate, design and pilot new products and take prototypes to market.

Here are just a handful of the ways our members have come to the assistance of industry through applied research activities and curriculum development that ensures students are equipped with job-ready and industry relevant skills..

• Algonquin College in Ottawa’s Mechanical Engineering Technologist students are collaborating with Edey FX, a local fabrication business, to create a mobile windmill to bring electrical power to remote areas.
• SAIT Polytechnic of Calgary is leading a trajectory study of the Whistler Sliding Centre track, partnering with industry and the University of British Columbia. This study brings together experts in sport, construction, safety and trauma to conduct a technical safety analysis of the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton Olympic track. 
• In Kitchener, Conestoga’s stand-alone Bachelor of Business Administration degree program in International Business Management has received accreditation from the Forum for International Trade Training, recognizing the skills and knowledge of graduates to compete in a global marketplace.
• Ongoing upgrades to the Firefox web browser are designed in collaboration with students and faculty from Seneca College’s Centre for Development of Open Technology in Toronto.
• Researchers and students at BCIT in Vancouver will be leading a group of post-secondary institutions working with Canadian power utility companies to establish Canada’s next-generation electricity system, the Smart Grid that can monitor and manage energy consumption.
• At George Brown College in Toronto, students and employees joined with Bridgepoint Health and Tenet Computer Group to launch innovative emergency preparedness mobile software to help hospitals deal with crises such as pandemics or natural disasters.  PINpoint ™ was tested at the college’s School of Emergency Management simulation center – the only facility of its kind in Canada.

As a result of the problem-solving and critical thinking skills that our students acquire in curricula and applied research projects such as these, most succeed in gaining high-quality employment within six months of graduation. Polytechnics graduates are in demand because, along with research skills, they have achieved the ability to communicate clearly, think critically and analyze problems effectively. We call this combination of learned adaptability and flexibility “innovation literacy.” All levels of the workforce need innovation literacy now and in the future, and Polytechnics Canada members deliver it.

Nobina Robinson

June 2011

Click here to see our recent news release on the tabling on the 2011 federal budget: http://www.polytechnicscanada.ca/news/federal-budget-2011-widens-industry-access-college-and-polytechnic-applied-research-2011-jun-06

Click here to see other recommendations made to the Federal Government:

http://www.polytechnicscanada.ca/publication_resources