(from the Plenary Session, delivered by the Assistant Secretary of the Federal Dept. of Labor, Jane Oates, and Dr. Paul Harrington, Prof., Center for Labor Market and Policy, Drexel)
Note, that there are 345 delegates in attendance from 22 countries.
During the recession, the decrease in the employment to population ratio of 16 to 19 year olds went from 37 to 28%. For those with Bachelor degrees, it went from 81% to 75%.
Dr. Harrington went on to speak about "mal-employment", where graduates are not in employment situations relevant to their area of study. For Bachelor-degreed students from engineering, math, or computer science it was 18%. In Humanities, Commerce, Arts, and Science it was greater than 30%.
The mean annual earnings for the mal-employed drops dramatically from about $68k/a (engineering) to $37k/a. The same is true for Masters-level graduates.
There are in other words, earnings premiums for finding relevant employment. It can be as much as 86% for engineering versus 17% for non-relevant roles. In business disciplines, it can be as much as 65% versus 15%.
Another observation, relevant to Co-op and building relations with employers, the Universities are welcome, stable sources of talent that are trusted. Employers do not put as much trust in individual letters of reference. They want to build long-term relationships in order to have predictable access to the labour market. This can mean that they need to have relationships that afford the potential to speak about student candidates with university personnel, where the longer-term relationship is paramount. They wish to know that they can learn about candidates from the university and know that the guidance they will get is secondary to sustaining the relationship. That's a different way of saying that they want us to know our students and "guide" employers accordingly. This is, in my opinion, a difficult and challenging situation for all of us on many fronts.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Researching under WACE, Tuesday afternoon
I managed to catch the first hour of a 3.5 hour presentation on advancing research in WIL, which went on to discuss "how to" for practitioners who are interested but not currently pursuing research options. Many good ideas came out, but the constraints of time, money, and institutional support were identified as barriers. Some alternative approaches were brainstormed, including piggybacking on other research(ers), ensuring political support internally in order to generate the necessary resources, and generally elevating the visibility through promoting WIL as a benefit to the institution and all stakeholders. A very thorough introduction and set of guidelines to ethical, academic research was offered by Maureen Drysdale (and Aneta Filiciak) of U. Waterloo.
If there were three good suggestions, they were keep thinking about questions, start reading the journals (CEIA and APJ), and start involving others in your institution.
If there were three good suggestions, they were keep thinking about questions, start reading the journals (CEIA and APJ), and start involving others in your institution.
WACE Research Ideas, Tuesday morning
Notes from WACE, Philadelphia
20110614
Roundtable Discussion on Co-operative and Work-Integrated Education Research (Waller, Lumsden, Drysdale...Waterloo)
A consortium of researchers came together in Victoria, in 2009 (WACE). They met yesterday and now invite others to join in the pursuit of research into Co-op. From that meeting there were four basic outcomes, with interests in Theoretical Frameworks, Economic Development, Boundary Spanning, etc.
From WACE 2009, there were categorizations of research areas (smallest to largest, from 101 to 206 presentations): student assessment, student practice, employer assessment and practice, and institution practice. Today, we followed moderators for the different areas, to discuss each of these areas. To be considered, what needs to be researched, how should it be carried out, who should do the research, and what are the implications of the research? The notion on the floor is that by identifying the areas of interest, further groupings of researchers who are interested in each of these matters will come together to pursue the questions and research.
At the Employer Research Roundtable, some of the following questions and observations were made (from New Zealand to South Africa to Cincinnati)...
>> What is the educational obligation of the employer, in support of WIL (work-integrated learning)? Do we need to do more to assist?
>> What is it that employers are looking for in a graduating student, that could be developed in the student (or the program), relative to their employability?
>> What influence does "professional accreditation" play in employer's decision to participate in
WIL. Do they view this as giving back or paying forward?
>> Can we characterize the last 20% of students (to be employed, each semester), who represent 80% of the effort by the Co-op Dept.?
>> There was some discussion around soft skills, the willingness and ability to learn, and something called "learning agility" (Lominger) and the resultant desireability of a student in a hiring proccess.
>> What influence are employers bringing to curriculum change and reform? And what role did Co-op have in this change?
From some of the other roundtables, there were many, many different research ideas, questions, and proposals brought forward. The practice of assessment is widely important across various activities of concern from the points of view of the practitioner, the faculty, and the employer/supervisor.
20110614
Roundtable Discussion on Co-operative and Work-Integrated Education Research (Waller, Lumsden, Drysdale...Waterloo)
A consortium of researchers came together in Victoria, in 2009 (WACE). They met yesterday and now invite others to join in the pursuit of research into Co-op. From that meeting there were four basic outcomes, with interests in Theoretical Frameworks, Economic Development, Boundary Spanning, etc.
From WACE 2009, there were categorizations of research areas (smallest to largest, from 101 to 206 presentations): student assessment, student practice, employer assessment and practice, and institution practice. Today, we followed moderators for the different areas, to discuss each of these areas. To be considered, what needs to be researched, how should it be carried out, who should do the research, and what are the implications of the research? The notion on the floor is that by identifying the areas of interest, further groupings of researchers who are interested in each of these matters will come together to pursue the questions and research.
At the Employer Research Roundtable, some of the following questions and observations were made (from New Zealand to South Africa to Cincinnati)...
>> What is the educational obligation of the employer, in support of WIL (work-integrated learning)? Do we need to do more to assist?
>> What is it that employers are looking for in a graduating student, that could be developed in the student (or the program), relative to their employability?
>> What influence does "professional accreditation" play in employer's decision to participate in
WIL. Do they view this as giving back or paying forward?
>> Can we characterize the last 20% of students (to be employed, each semester), who represent 80% of the effort by the Co-op Dept.?
>> There was some discussion around soft skills, the willingness and ability to learn, and something called "learning agility" (Lominger) and the resultant desireability of a student in a hiring proccess.
>> What influence are employers bringing to curriculum change and reform? And what role did Co-op have in this change?
From some of the other roundtables, there were many, many different research ideas, questions, and proposals brought forward. The practice of assessment is widely important across various activities of concern from the points of view of the practitioner, the faculty, and the employer/supervisor.
Observations and Learning from WACE 2011
I'm attending the World Association for Co-operative Education at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, USA. I'd like to offer for your review what I'm seeing, hearing, and learning as I join in with practitioners from around the world.
I'll put up various postings as the days proceed.
Bruce
I'll put up various postings as the days proceed.
Bruce
Thursday, June 2, 2011
HR Ontario...at EWO
Jody Hendry, who manages the post-grad internships program for the Ontario government, the summer student programs, and now is piloting a process for streamlining the Co-op hiring processes for the government over the next 12 months, spoke to us about the upcoming program and took questions and recommendations from the assembled EWO group.
Some of the operating parameters are that they need to respect the existing agreements with OPSEU, etc., but that there is still some space to hire about 200 students per term. Going forward, they expect to be guided by the EWO website with respect to contact and program information, so it will be important for EWO schools to maintain this information closely.
The pilot will look like this: generic jobs will be posted for Co-op students. Once the applicants have submitted though, there will not be direct access for institutions to the progress of the hiring decision, until and unless the hiring manager gets in touch with the institution. The aim is to improve transparency and consistency, however. So, some recommendations on how to interact with the institutions were brought forward, e.g., putting a Coordinator's name and contact info on the student's application form...for the hiring manager's benefit. Unfortunately, timelines for decisions will not be readily available. Everything is up to the individual hiring manager.
Some of the operating parameters are that they need to respect the existing agreements with OPSEU, etc., but that there is still some space to hire about 200 students per term. Going forward, they expect to be guided by the EWO website with respect to contact and program information, so it will be important for EWO schools to maintain this information closely.
The pilot will look like this: generic jobs will be posted for Co-op students. Once the applicants have submitted though, there will not be direct access for institutions to the progress of the hiring decision, until and unless the hiring manager gets in touch with the institution. The aim is to improve transparency and consistency, however. So, some recommendations on how to interact with the institutions were brought forward, e.g., putting a Coordinator's name and contact info on the student's application form...for the hiring manager's benefit. Unfortunately, timelines for decisions will not be readily available. Everything is up to the individual hiring manager.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
More from EWO...unpaid work
As a matter of fact, there are situations where students and companies enter into agreements where they both benefit, and there is no (or little) remuneration. The student gets a reference, with relevant experience and the employer gets the talent and the outcomes. It's often unconventional, with the student coming to work when they're available (often they may be working unrelated roles so that they can afford to pursue the unpaid role).
The University of Waterloo (thank you, Rocco) is examining their policies and approaches to unpaid positions and trying diligently to respect the CAFCE guidelines. They're bringing creativity to how to identify "remuneration", the CAFCE term, such that honoraria, stipends, equity positions, hardware (tools and devices) provision, etc. would be recognized. It's relatively critical to ask the employer what they would have done (would the work have gone undone?) if there was not a student available in the so-called unpaid role.
Questions about insurance for the student and the Ontario Tax Credit (whether or not the amount is enough or if awareness is sufficient) were brought forward and it seems we may not have wide understanding and clarity on where we're at on these points).
The University of Waterloo (thank you, Rocco) is examining their policies and approaches to unpaid positions and trying diligently to respect the CAFCE guidelines. They're bringing creativity to how to identify "remuneration", the CAFCE term, such that honoraria, stipends, equity positions, hardware (tools and devices) provision, etc. would be recognized. It's relatively critical to ask the employer what they would have done (would the work have gone undone?) if there was not a student available in the so-called unpaid role.
Questions about insurance for the student and the Ontario Tax Credit (whether or not the amount is enough or if awareness is sufficient) were brought forward and it seems we may not have wide understanding and clarity on where we're at on these points).
Notes from the (Ryerson) EWO Conference
Beautiful days to be in Toronto...it's warm and sunny and we can get out in the amazing green spaces that dot the Ryerson campus.
Our morning began with a talk from Kelly Johnson, a social media trainer from London, who spoke about the various social media and dashboards that integrate them. A strong takeaway was that you "must understand your audience". There are various ways to participate and no right way to participate, but some are better than others for different intended outcomes.
Whether you're a lurker or a keener in any one of them, being familiar with them can't hurt. Creating a temporary presence or identity before you commit fully will allow you to familiarize yourself before you make a big commitment...and it is a commitment, of time and energy and creativity.
So identify your target audience, establish your brand, set up 2 or 3 tools, and start increasing traffic through word-of-mouth and through maintaining and developing client promotions.
With regard to Facebook, it is definitely a social space first, but with the addition of a new module called BranchOut, they're attempting to play where LinkedIn is staked out. That being the case, Facebook can be a more friendly way to ask someone to connect with you on LinkedIn. Several watchouts with Facebook...watch your privacy settings. They can change without notice as Facebook evolves new functionalities.
Two further ideas to ponder: one, you don't "pay" to play with these tools, you play to play. It takes that kind of energy and approach. And second, there are "dashboard" tools like Spredfast,
which allows simultaneous monitoring of all of the tools AND you can have multiple people accessing the same, corporate sites.
Twitter wasn't discussed too thoroughly...but clearly is big on the user/adoption front. Hey, we've even secured a posting through Twitter.
Richard Wiggers, the Director of HEQCO (dot ca), spoke to us about some research underway relative to students, experiential work, and their intersection points.
Just some of the many, many nuggets he offered (see the full report, which will be available
shortly):
Our morning began with a talk from Kelly Johnson, a social media trainer from London, who spoke about the various social media and dashboards that integrate them. A strong takeaway was that you "must understand your audience". There are various ways to participate and no right way to participate, but some are better than others for different intended outcomes.
Whether you're a lurker or a keener in any one of them, being familiar with them can't hurt. Creating a temporary presence or identity before you commit fully will allow you to familiarize yourself before you make a big commitment...and it is a commitment, of time and energy and creativity.
So identify your target audience, establish your brand, set up 2 or 3 tools, and start increasing traffic through word-of-mouth and through maintaining and developing client promotions.
With regard to Facebook, it is definitely a social space first, but with the addition of a new module called BranchOut, they're attempting to play where LinkedIn is staked out. That being the case, Facebook can be a more friendly way to ask someone to connect with you on LinkedIn. Several watchouts with Facebook...watch your privacy settings. They can change without notice as Facebook evolves new functionalities.
Two further ideas to ponder: one, you don't "pay" to play with these tools, you play to play. It takes that kind of energy and approach. And second, there are "dashboard" tools like Spredfast,
which allows simultaneous monitoring of all of the tools AND you can have multiple people accessing the same, corporate sites.
Twitter wasn't discussed too thoroughly...but clearly is big on the user/adoption front. Hey, we've even secured a posting through Twitter.
Richard Wiggers, the Director of HEQCO (dot ca), spoke to us about some research underway relative to students, experiential work, and their intersection points.
Just some of the many, many nuggets he offered (see the full report, which will be available
shortly):
- high school students are taking fewer and fewer part-time jobs and this is negatively impacting their "experience" quotient...which presents future concerns for practitioners and employers.
- 64% of upcoming grads (baccalaureate) anticipate going for further credentials...perhaps (?) because they aren't confident of their employment potential (most especially if they have not had chances in work-integrated learning (WIL)). Unfortunately, without relevant experience, this may improve their employability.
- 78% of students in WIL cite the EXPERIENCE as the main driver in making this choice, not PAY!
- It sounds like a good read...Intern Nation, by Ross Perlin...as it reveals tidbits like the 10s of 1000s of student/interns who work illegally in the U.S., because it's become the new norm. Part of that new norm comes about because Co-op can't deliver all of the students that would satisfy the demand. Part of that is attributed to erosion of faculty support and funding to Co-op. And now, the result, which is that 29% of Co-op opportunities in the U.S. are unpaid. Let's not let that happen in Canada.
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