White Paper

A year ago RBC launched Humans Wanted: How Canadian youth can thrive in the age of disruption, a ground-breaking research report that examined the coming skills revolution in Canada. We found that for Canada to thrive in a time of profound economic and technological change, we need to develop a workforce that is highly mobile and equipped with the skills critical to the jobs of the future. As part of Humans Wanted, you told us you wanted to be heard on the subject of Canada's skills disconnect. So we went out and we listened. Over the course of 10 months we visited 12 cities, held 36 events and roundtable discussions, and engaged with more than 5,000 Canadians, ranging from youth and workers to employers, educators and policymakers, each with perspectives on how Canada can prepare for a disrupted future. What follows is a series of themes and ideas that emerged from that journey about the opportunities for Canada as we enter the 2020s

The School of Graduate Studies is excited to share the results of the 10,000 PhDs Project, which used Internet searches of open-access data sources such as official university and company websites to determine the current and/or first (2016) employment status of the 10,886 PhDs who graduated from U of T between 2000 and 2015 in all disciplines. The study successfully located 88% of PhD graduates. Where are U of T’s PhDs employed? From Professor to CEO, Assistant Deputy Minister to Creative Director, they are working in all sectors of society and in 97 countries around the world.

Bridging programs are designed for internationally educated immigrant professionals who have completed formal training in another country but who may not have the educational, professional or language requirements necessary to become licensed to practice in Canada. As Ontario's population ages, the successful integration of internationally educated health professionals (IEHPs) into the health care workforce has been identified as a strategy to address the challenges created by the shrinking labour pool and growing demands on the health care system (Finley & Hancock, 2010; Stuckey & Munro, 2013). To better understand the role of Ontario's postsecondary system in facilitating the entry of IEHPs into the health care workforce, this study analyzed seven Canadian bridging programs and obtained input from 15 key informants. The goal of the evaluation was to identify the characteristics and practices of effective IEHP bridging programs. The specific research questions addressed by the evaluation were: 1. What are the expected outcomes of effective bridging programs and how should they be measured? 2. What are the key features that contribute to bridging program effectiveness? 3. What challenges do bridging programs face in achieving their goals? 4. What is the appropriate role of regulatory colleges, government, employers and professional associations in ensuring bridging program effectiveness?

This report presents findings from the Work-Integrated Learning Employer Survey. The survey was designed to explore employer motivations and barriers to participating in work-integrated learning (WIL) programs (such as cooperative education, field placements and internships) and to gather employer perspectives on the impact of WIL on the skills, competencies and employability of Ontario postsecondary graduates. The survey was undertaken by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) in partnership with 14 Ontario postsecondary (PSE) institutions, the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) and the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation (MEDI). It is part of a larger research project that includes surveys of postsecondary faculty and students at the participating institutions. Postsecondary WIL programs are endorsed by both career development practitioners and business associations as essential to effective workforce development. They are also viewed as having the potential to offer significant labour market benefits to students - by improving their competitive positioning as they enter the labour market and, in some cases, helping them to secure employment immediately upon graduation. To successfully implement these programs, postsecondary institutions rely on the active participation of individual employers. Yet relatively little research has been conducted to assess employer attitudes toward WIL. Findings from the Work-Integrated Learning Employer Survey will support and strengthen partnerships between businesses, postsecondary institutions, community organizations and government by contributing knowledge about employer perspectives on the role of WIL programs, their perceptions of benefits and challenges, and the impact of WIL in transitioning students to the labour market. The survey was conducted by telephone with 3,369 Ontario employers in spring 2012, using a stratified random sampling approach. Results are generalizable to all Ontario employers with a margin of error of +/- 2%. This report analyzes employer attitudes and experiences with WIL according to whether they had hired postsecondary graduates and whether they had participated in work-integrated learning programs. Findings for employers who provided WIL are further analyzed by the type of postsecondary institution offering the WIL program and the specific type of WIL. Finally, differences between employers are also considered by size and sector.

This paper studies the causal effect of student internship experience on labor market choices and wages later in life. We use variation in the introduction and abolishment of mandatory internships at German universities as an instrument for completing an internship while attending university. Employing longitudinal data from graduate surveys, we find positive and significant wage returns of about six percent in both OLS and IV regressions. This result is mainly driven by a higher propensity of working full-time and a lower propensity of being unemployed in the first five years after entering the labor market. Moreover, former interns pursue doctoral studies less frequently. The positive returns are particularly pronounced for individuals and areas of study that are characterized by a weak labor market orientation. Heterogeneous effects are not found across other subgroups of the population.

This is part of a series of documents that provide additional information on the programs, policies and practices related to the citizenship priorities of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC®). The series supplements our annual corporate citizenship reporting, which provides an overview of our priorities, key performance indicators and annual highlights of corporate citizenship issues relevant to financial services companies in general, and to RBC in particular. It complements the information on the results of our operations and financial condition provided in our Annual Report and governance and executive compensation information disclosed in the Management Proxy Circular.

This study analyses trends in co-operative education (co-op) participation for graduates with a college certificate or diploma or a university bachelor's degree from 1986 to 2010 in Canada, based on data from the National Graduates Survey (NGS). Changes in co-op participation rates over time are examined, along with differences by field of study. The reasons behind the increase in co-op participation rates of women are also explored. -As the number of programs and institutions offering co-op programs rose in past decades, the proportion of college graduates who participated in a co-op program rose from 7% in 1986 to 22% in 2010. Similarly, the proportion of co-op participants among graduates with a bachelor's degree rose from 5% to 12% over the same period. - In 2010, the highest co-op participation rates among college graduates were found in Manitoba (32%), Ontario (31%) and Nova Scotia (27%). Among graduates with a bachelor's degree, Newfoundland and Labrador and British Columbia had the highest participation rates (19% and 18%, respectively). - In 2010, 37% of graduates with a bachelor's degree in architecture or engineering participated in a co-op program--the highest co-op participation rate of all major fields of study. In contrast, the participation rate was lower among graduates with a bachelor's degree in social sciences, psychology and law (8%). - Between 1986 and 2010, the co-op participation rate of graduates with a bachelor's degree in commerce, management and public administration rose from 4% to 17%. As a result, one quarter of co-op participants with a bachelor's degree were from this field of study in 2010. - Of bachelor's graduates who participated in a co-op program, the proportion of females rose from 42% in 1986 to 55% in 2010, mainly because co-op participation rates have increased in fields of study that have a higher proportion of females.

Canada is facing a quiet crisis. In the coming decade, half of all jobs will be disrupted by technology and automation. Some will change dramatically. Others will disappear completely, replaced by jobs that are yet to be invented. We are living through an era of radical change, with the latest advancements in artificial intelligence and automation transforming the way we work, even in unexpected fields such as law and customer service. How will we prepare Canadian youth for the workplace of the future? Over the past year, RBC conducted a major study of the Canadian workforce. We crisscrossed the country, talked to students, workers, educators and employers in every sector. We studied job openings and automation trends and dug into mountains of data to figure out how the country is changing and what we can do to prepare.

Cooperative education (co-op) programs in engineering provide students with relevant professional experience before they finish their undergraduate degree. Most programs and employers have academic eligibility requirements that make it difficult to infer whether successful employment outcomes are due to the selection of higher performing students or the causal effect of co-op participation. The goal of this study is to determine factors that are associated with participation in engineering cooperative education programs, controlling for eligibility. Longitudinal and multivariate data from six different institutions, each with large engineering programs where co-op participation is not mandatory, were studied with stepwise logistic regression. Results show that cumulative GPA at the end of the second semester is the strongest predictor of co-op participation. While institutional differences, year of matriculation, ethnicity, major discipline, and high school variables are also significant, gender is not related to co-op participation. The results from this paper will provide useful information for colleges, co-op administrators, and employers about who participates in co-op programs.