News Articles

As Canadian businesses look beyond the COVID-19 pandemic and toward recovery, many will want to revamp or re-tool their operations. This is where applied research can be a game-changer, a ready-made solution for post-pandemic economic recovery, utilizing post-secondary innovation capacity to help businesses identify and respond to challenges. Canada’s polytechnics bring space, equipment, and expertise to the table, supplementing the capacity of Canada’s business community to engage in pragmatic research and development.

In an interview with Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia, Senior Director of Digital Economy, Technology, and Innovation at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Sarah Watts-Rynard, a member of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and CEO of Polytechnics Canada, explains how applied research can address the unique challenges that lie ahead for Canadian business.

Read More > “How Applied Research Can Support a Business-Led Recovery”

It’s time for a national skills and experience strategy.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians are retiring or are being laid off in greater numbers and taking their much-needed skills and experience out of the workforce. At the same time, many others are facing career disruptions and have had to quickly retool just to survive.

As we work towards a long-term economic recovery, policy makers and postsecondary institutions need to ensure younger learners and mid-career professionals are acquiring the right mix of skills for the future.  Often forgotten in the discussion around skills development are the critical ‘soft skills’ that are essential to every workplace and much sought-after by employers.

Read More > “We Need to Start Giving Soft Skills More Credit”

Aerospace is an integral and strategic sector for Canada. Not only does it add high-value jobs, innovation intensity—with beneficial spill-over effects—and billions in GDP to our economy, it’s also key to protecting our borders, surveilling the North, putting Canadians in space, and potentially, delivering COVID-19 testing kits via unmanned aerial vehicles to remote regions of the country.

Canada needs a strong aerospace sector and aerospace needs Canadian talent.

Read More > “On the radar: polytechnics delivering 21st century talent for Canada’s aerospace sector”

As Canada begins to build back better, investments that achieve multiple benefits stand to expedite recovery and amplify impact.  Just as the United States once did with its New Deal to respond to the Great Depression, a key ingredient to Canada’s long-term recovery will undoubtedly be infrastructure investment and development. 

Read More > “Investments in education and training infrastructure critical to Canada’s long-term recovery”

Across the country, the conversation about post-pandemic recovery has begun. Most agree we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape Canada’s economy and reposition ourselves for a greener, more sustainable future.

Read More > “A green recovery means addressing food insecurity”

COVID-19 has disrupted labour markets unlike anything since the Great Depression. Young people have been especially hard hit by the economic slowdown, with school closures and a transition to remote learning. Youth were also among the hardest hit when employers reduced operations. 

Read More > “Connecting work to education should be priority beyond pandemic”

As governments across Canada plan for a post-pandemic reset and recovery, ensuring businesses have workers with the skills to help them transform and innovate should be a high priority. A resilient labour market is the answer to two important challenges ahead: It stands to reconnect workers with paid employment and diminishes reliance on government supports.

Read More > “A resilient workforce is Priority 1”