In April 2015, the Business Council of Canada established the Business/ Higher Education Roundtable (BHER), a national forum comprising 27 leaders from business, universities, colleges and polytechnics. BHER works to support young Canadians as they transition from education to the workplace, strengthen research collaboration between industry and institutions, and help Canadian employers as they adapt to the economy of the future. The Roundtable identified two priority initiatives with the following goals: Help young Canadians make the transition from school to work through collaborative partnerships between the business community and post-secondary institutions and promoting practice-based learning opportunities for students; Strengthen research, development and innovation partnerships between Canadian companies and post-secondary institutions. The Roundtable has engaged Academica Group, a higher education consultancy, to examine: The scope of work-integrated learning available at post-secondary institutions in Canada; The extent to which post-secondary students participate in workrelated programs; Best practices in the design and implementation of work-integrated learning programs. This report reviews the extensive academic research on these topics. It outlines numerous challenges that have emerged in the field of workintegrated learning in Canada. It also identifies a number of practices and recommendations that could alleviate these concerns and promote a highquality, high-value experience for students.

T here are a number of major trends that have the potential to shape the future of work, from climate change and resource scarcity to demographic shifts resulting from an aging population and immigration. This report focuses on the need to prepare Canada’s youth for a future where a great number of jobs will be rapidly created, altered or made obsolete by technology.Successive waves of technological advancements have rocked global economies for centuries, reconfiguring the labour force and giving rise to new economic opportunities with each wave. Modern advances, including artificial intelligence and robotics, once again have the potential to transform the economy, perhaps more rapidly and more dramatically than ever before. As past pillars of Canada’s economic growth become less reliable, harnessing technology and innovation will become increasingly important in driving productivity and growth. The primary burden of realizing this enormous opportunity rests on the shoulders of Canada’s young people. To succeed in the knowledge economy, the pipeline of young talent will need to be dynamic and resilient, equipped with a broad suite of technical and soft skills. While youth are always the cornerstone of a country’s future workforce, the rapid pace of technology-driven change makes the task of effectively integrating them into the labour force more challenging—and more critical—than ever before. Failure to do so will not only inhibit Canada’s economic growth, but may result in a large swath of the population being left behind in the knowledge economy. Youth are entering a labour market where job requirements are becoming more complex. Entrylevel jobs are at a high risk of being impacted by automation, yet work experience is more important than ever. At the same time, underemployment, part-time, and precarious work are becoming more prevalent. As a result, it is becoming more challenging for youth to seamlessly enter the labour force.These issues are particularly salient for youth facing multiple barriers to labour force participation and for those who have traditionally been underrepresented in knowledge-based industries— including women and indigenous youth—some of whom represent the fastest growing segments of our population. The good news is that Canada has a strong foundation with some of the highest rates of educational attainment in the world, 4 and a tech sector that has never been stronger. 5 Canadian youth are highly skilled, well-educated, entrepreneurial and arguably among the best suited to adapt to the complex skills required for the future of work. No one sector can address this challenge alone. As Canada begins to focus more deliberately on inclusive economic growth, it is paramount that the country’s public, private and non-profit sectors work together to ensure that Canadian youth have the skills and experience to benefit from and drive technological progress. This report illustrates the need for urgent attention to be paid to this issue. It will start by describing some of the technological trends that are reshaping the future of work, and the challenges and opportunities they present for youth. It will explain the impact of these trends on the skills and experience that will be increasingly demanded of youth entering the workforce. Finally, it will outline potential avenues that can be explored to help ensure Canada’s youth are well-positioned to thrive and prosper in the future.

Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) released the results of its latest 2017-2018 applied research survey. According to it, colleges and institutes continue to occupy a critical space in Canada's innovation ecosystem. The survey results show that colleges and institutes across Canada led over 6,000 applied research projects in 2017-2018. This resulted in over 2,100 prototypes, 880 new products, 480 processes and 360 services, 87% of which were completed in less than one year.These projects were based on over 7,300 research partnerships, 64% of which included small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which may not always have the capacity or resources to conduct cutting-edge research on their own. In this way, college and institute applied research helps drive innovation in their communities, from large urban centres to small northern and remote communities. The survey also highlights how applied research projects provided great opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience while working with potential employers. Over 57,000 people, including more than 4,000 faculty and staff, and 53,000 students, contributed to applied research projects at college and institute laboratories and research centres in 2017-2018.

As robots, automation and artificial intelligence perform more tasks and there is massive disruption of jobs, experts say a wider array of education and skills-building programs will be created to meet new demands. There are two uncertainties: Will well-prepared workers be able to keep up in the race with AI tools? And will market capitalism survive?