The Conference Board’s Centre for Skills and Post-Secondary Education is hosting a major two-day Summit to explore the future of higher education—including colleges, universities, apprenticeship and trades training—and how we can work together to address the advanced skills, education and competitiveness challenges facing Canada today.

Advanced skills and educational qualifications are increasingly important to innovation, productivity, economic growth and competitiveness, as Canadian firms face off against the global best in international and domestic markets. They are also crucial to the well-being of Canadians who need good jobs and careers in order to enjoy a high standard of living.

While education is a provincial government responsibility, improving the skills and post-secondary education system is a national priority. It will require a broad collaboration of public and private sector stakeholders to accomplish the task. Our collective future depends on a viable and sustainable PSE sector that supports high post-secondary participation rates and can achieve stronger results in discovery, learning outcomes, and capacity building.

The Centre for Skills and Post-Secondary Education is responding to the need by developing a Skills and PSE Strategy for Canada—a comprehensive, action-oriented framework that expresses a shared vision for the future of PSE in Canada, specific goals, and actions to achieve the required changes in the medium- to long-term.

Our 2nd Skills and Post-Secondary Education Summit will feature a combination of keynote speakers, participant dialogue, interactive presentations, and delegate-expert sharing to give Summit participants unique insights on how we can better develop the educated, highly skilled populations urgently required by our businesses, economy and society.

The Summit is international in scope, attracting expert presenters and participants from across Canada and around the world. It is engaging hundreds of participant’s representing the key players in the PSE system, including: senior administration; faculty, staff, and students; government; business; professional and regulatory associations; alumni; and communities.

Delegates will receive a copy of the pre-draft Skills and PSE Strategy for Canada and will be invited to take part in interactive discussions and consultations to provide their input on key issues related to the content, development, and implementation of the Strategy. Summit participants can share their views and insights, which will be captured by rapporteurs and used in the subsequent Strategy development and refinement process.

Summit Themes

The conference will focus on the following themes:

• Improving Canada’s Competitiveness—How would improving levels of education, training, and skills enhance our national competitiveness?
• Overcoming Skills and Labour Shortages and Mismatches―How are skills shortages and mismatches affecting the economy? What best practices and potential solutions could address the shortages?
• Re-skilling and Up-skilling Target Populations—How can we engage more immigrants, Aboriginals, youth, mature workers, structurally unemployed individuals, people with disabilities, and women in advanced trades and training programs through PSE to increase the supply of workers in Canada?
• The Way Forward for the Post-Secondary Education (PSE) System―How can we develop a world class PSE system that supplies the highly skilled and educated workforce we need?
• Connecting Industry Needs, Educational Programs, and Skilled Talent―How can we better connect the key players to make PSE an engine of high performance for our people and economy?

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