Recent stories of soaring student debt levels and under-placed college graduates have caused some to question whether a college education is still a sound investment. In this paper, we review the literature on the returns to higher education in an attempt to determine who benefits from college. Despite the tremendous heterogeneity across potential college students, we conclude that the investment appears to payoff for both the average and marginal student. During the past three decades in particular, the earnings premium associated with a college education has risen substantially. Beyond the pecuniary benefits of higher education, we suggest that there also may exist non-pecuniary benefits. Given these findings, it is perhaps surprising that among recent cohorts, college completion rates have stagnated. We discuss potential explanations for this trend and conclude by succinctly interpreting the evidence on how to make the most out of college.

Be they social, economic or environmental, unprecedented challenges facing us, due to the acceleration of globalization and technological progress. At the same time, these forces offer us a wealth of new opportunities in support of human progress. The future is uncertain and unpredictable, but we must keep an open mind and we prepare. Children who enter school in 2018 will be young adults in 2030. The school can prepare them for jobs that do not yet exist, to technologies that have not yet been invented, problems that n have not yet been anticipated and they will have to overcome. It is our responsibility to all of the opportunities that arise and find solutions. What knowledge, skills, attitudes and values ​​of today's pupils will they need to succeed in life and build the world of tomorrow? How education systems can they pass that knowledge, skills, attitudes and values ​​effectively? [googletranslate_en]

Researchers acknowledge that the need to engage in problem solving and critical and creative thinking has “always been at the core of learning and innovation” (Trilling & Fadel, 2009, p. 50). What’s new in the 21st century is the call for education systems to emphasize and develop these competencies in explicit and intentional ways through deliberate changes in curriculum design and pedagogical practice. The goal of these changes is to prepare students to solve messy, complex problems – including problems we don’t yet know about – associated with living in a competitive, globally connected, and technologically intensive world.

The report is an independent review that considers legislative changes to both employment standards and labour relations to address today’s modern workplace.

Webpage- The Ontario Skills Passport (OSP) provides clear descriptions of Essential Skills and work habits important for success in work, learning and life. Learners can use the OSP tools and resources to assess, build, document and track their skills in classroom, cooperative education and other experiential learning opportunities, volunteer and extracurricular activities. This information can help them develop their Individual Pathways Plan (IPP) as they answer the questions: Who am I? What are my opportunities? Who do I want to become? What is my plan for achieving my goals?

The fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, more ubiquitously known by the acronym "STEM," have received a substantial amount of attention in recent years. As part of a research study investigating the alignment (or lack thereof) between the goals and priorities of educators and employers, we found it difficult to ascertain precisely what constituted a STEM occupation and to reconcile vastly different job, wage, and educational attainment projections. In this paper we explore the ways in which agencies and labor market researchers define STEM in six widely cited reports, and how these definitions influence the estimated and projected number of STEM jobs, estimates of how much these jobs pay, and what levels of education are necessary to attain these jobs. We find that agencies and researchers use different methods to classify STEM jobs (e.g., work tasks performed, knowledge, skills, education, type of work), which result in STEM job estimates ranging from 5.4 million to 26 million. Wage estimates exhibit a similarly wide range, from $50,000 to $96,000. In addition, jobs that require some STEM knowledge are frequently excluded from labor market analyses of STEM occupations, resulting in the under-counting of STEM-related jobs, the over-estimation of potential wages, and under-valuing of a sub-baccalaureate degree. Finally, we emphasize how groups of occupations (e.g., STEM) and industries (e.g., manufacturing) cannot be conflated with specific occupations. We recommend that researchers and agencies adopt a universal definition of STEM occupations and/or be more precise when speaking about the labor market in STEM related fields.

With the Internet of Things, or IoT, we’re at the dawn of a new revolution, which could be compared with the digital wave that disrupted most industries not so long ago. For although digitalisation clearly created immense value for consumers, it was also very tough on companies unable to adapt quickly enough. So, how can we generate value in this new game? The Internet of Things is everywhere. Wearables, or portable technologies, and other health-related accessories are among the first to come to the fore, such as bracelets, watches, bathroom scales, and others, with Fitbit, Jawbone, Withings, and iWatch. Objects like cars, tractors, suitcases, fridges, garbage cans – even the human body – are getting connected. Yet machine-to-machine (M2M) interfaces are nothing new: they’ve been around for over two decades. So, what has changed? Significantly lower sensor costs, an explosive rise of connectivity, increased computing processor power, and miniaturisation of these components are all factors that augment innovation opportunities and hence the range of connected objects.

The first part of the Report on the Future of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s Government builds a shared understanding of the future of work. The report looks for answers to broad questions exploring the future of working and provides information on the consequences of the changes that are taking place. The transition of working life is perhaps the greatest challenge for Finland, and there is no single, simple solution to it. In this transition the traditional links between growth, productivity and wellbeing may be broken. The consequences for the society may be quite dramatic, but the changes will take some time to happen – the work of the future is characterized by diversity and continuous change over longer periods of time. The report raises questions concerning the social policy of the future and opportunities that we should grasp already today. The key questions are concerned with how the transition of work changes the traditional link between work and earning a living and the regularity, coverage and functioning of the social arrangements and safety networks that support this, while also offering additional impetus and significant opportunities for new forms of organization and self-employment, platforms, sharing economy and joint providership. As the borders between employer and employee, provision and consumption, working and non-working, and entrepreneurship and paid employment are fading, this changes many of the key social structures, including tax base and the customer base of the social security system, and pressures are created to reform the competence base, legislation, and the role of trade unions and protection of interests. The advancement of technologies treats different types of tasks in very different ways and at a different pace and the resources of the labour force are highly varied, which means that there is a risk of growing inequality in working life and on the labour market. These questions take us towards the second part of the report, which is concerned with building solutions and policy choices. The second part of the report will be published in summer 2018.

Proposal: I seek this Committee’s in-principle agreement to establish a legislative system that allows employers and workers to create Fair Pay Agreements that set minimum employment terms and conditions across an industry or occupation. This in-principle agreement is subject to further consideration by Cabinet once I report back with advice from an expert advisory group on the scope and design of a Fair Pay Agreement system.