Integrated post-secondary programs a solution to Canada’s tech talent shortage

When corporate leaders in Canada were asked to name threats to business growth in a 2021 KPMG outlook poll, digital skills shortage was identified as the top concern. Across every sector and size, Canadian businesses are unable to recruit and retain digital technology specialists who can help them keep pace with new and emerging IT solutions. For Canada to advance as a global leader in the digital economy, we need to solve the tech talent shortage once and for all. Innovative programs in post-secondary education, built on proven international models, can help make this happen. Canadian companies are competing for the same small pool of information communication technology (ICT) specialists—such as software developers, cyber security analysts, and data scientists—to develop, improve, and protect their products and services. If Canada doesn’t act quickly to address these acute ICT sector skills gaps, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic, we risk falling further behind. Yet, while companies struggle to hire and keep highly skilled ICT specialists, an estimated 1.7-million Canadians are excluded from the digital economy. According to Deloitte, Black, Indigenous, people of colour (BIPOC), immigrants, individuals with disabilities, and older people face systemic hurdles to IT careers. They constitute untapped potential tech talent that could help drive economic growth and could bring their diverse backgrounds and perspectives to solve complex issues. To scale up Canada’s tech workforce, we need to create and facilitate more affordable, inclusive education pathways to digital technologies careers. Integrated programs bring post-secondary institutions and industry together to provide an opportunity for untapped talent. An integrated program is a uniquely flexible alternative to traditional university study. Learners work full time with an employer for four years, earning a salary, while devoting 20 per cent of their contracted working hours studying towards a university degree. As learners simultaneously work on the job and learn in the classroom and online, it opens doors to those who simply wouldn’t otherwise have the time or money to pursue a degree. For employers, it’s an opportunity to upskill an existing workforce and attract fresh high-quality talent whose ideas, knowledge, and skills can add value to an organization from day one. As work and learning occur in a seamless environment, businesses can benefit from a learner’s access to the latest expertise, knowledge, and resources that a university provides. At the same time, because the program is co-designed and developed by numerous businesses and industry associations alongside a university, the curriculum and learning outcomes anticipate industry needs and shape their evolution. At the heart of an integrated program is a tight-knit, symbiotic industry-academia relationship, which reimagines the future of learning and employment. Integrated programs are based on a highly successful work-integrated learning model established in the United Kingdom, called degree apprenticeships. Since 2015, when the first tranche of degree apprenticeship programs rolled out with 756 learners across the U.K., it has grown to more than 22,500 learners. Now, more than 100 universities in the U.K. offer degree apprenticeships, with digital technologies solutions among the top programs. Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), one of the leading U.K. providers of degree apprenticeships, reported 100 per cent of their employer partners found apprentices contributed to growing talent. Learners performed so well during their program, 78 per cent received a pay raise and 64 per cent received a promotion. For their digital technologies program, the average student salary a year after graduating was 46 per cent higher than the average U.K. computer science graduate, and five per cent higher than graduates from the top five U.K. computing courses (including Oxford and Cambridge). Now, it’s coming to Canada. I led the design and implementation of New Zealand’s first degree-apprenticeship pilot program based on this proven U.K. model—and I’m excited to make it a reality in Canada, too. At Lassonde School of Engineering at York University, we’ve brought together technology experts from various ICT sectors and co-designed a program that can create the next generation of software developers, cyber security specialists, and data scientists. Beginning in the fall of 2023, the digital technologies program will be an extraordinary first for Canada to build its tech sector. Enrolled students will work while simultaneously earning a Bachelor of Applied Science. As a scalable model, this first integrated program has the potential to address the national tech skills shortage and regain footing we’ve lost in the global digital economy. Preparing these graduates will empower Canada to innovate and disrupt, filling domestic vacancies while also attracting global investment. Jane Goodyer is the Dean of the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University. The Hill Times