News Articles

Successive governments have struggled to address Canada’s weak innovation performance. To solve our most pressing challenges — climate change, an aging population and inequality among them — new solutions are critical.

One thing is clear: Canada’s innovation shortcomings will not improve until its small- and mid-sized businesses are active contributors. Applied research is built to enable these contributions.

Read More > “Applied research should be at the forefront of innovation strategy”

This is an excerpt from Pichette, J., Rizk, J., & Brumwell, S. (2021). Making Sense of the Micro: Building an evidence base for Ontario’s Micro-Credentials. Journal of Innovation in Polytechnic Education, 3(1), 10-14. This article has been republished with permission from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.

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Short, skill-focused courses and associated credentials are not new. Many employers and organizations have long offered in-house training and other informal learning opportunities for professional development and retention (Oliver, 2019). Powered, in part, by advancements in digital technology and evolving labour market demands, micro-credentials have emerged as a new form of focused learning with the potential to respond to both the modern hiring needs of employers and the training needs of adults looking to advance or pivot in the labour market.

Read More > “Why does Ontario need short, flexible credentials?”

The recent federal budget bets big on innovation, research and workforce development as a means to fire up the economy and pull us out of the pandemic.  The vision is clear:  Canada can become a leader in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biomanufacturing and green technology with the right investments now.

Read More > “The return of innovation”

In times of economic downturn, investing in infrastructure is often viewed as a way to stimulate the economy and expedite recovery. U.S. President Joe Biden just announced a $2-trillion infrastructure plan, in part to spur economic activity. Here in Canada, despite less-than-ideal progress on a 12-year, $188-billion Investing in Canada Plan, the truth is that economic and labour market recovery will depend in part on our ability to get building.

Read More > “Infrastructure-ready talent key to recovery”

Headlines across Canada and around the world continue to be filled with news of shutdowns, widespread economic chaos and the race to vaccinate.  Where we once defaulted to small talk about the weather, conversation has turned to daily case counts, ICU beds and vaccination statistics.  Health has become a national obsession, with all signs suggesting it will remain so until the pandemic fades into memory.

That’s why now is the right time to talk about – and invest in – the future of Canada’s healthcare system.

Read More > “Window of opportunity for feds to address healthcare deficits”

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”