LOCAL VIEWPOINT: More College Seats a mantra for ACC

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/02/2023 (935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In 2016-17, the Province of Manitoba commissioned a review of the college system in Manitoba. The review examined individual colleges as well as the system as a whole.

While the review was wide-ranging and informative, one item stood out above all — we need More College Seats in Manitoba. Our college even turned that into a bit of a mantra.

When it came to more college seats, our board of governors and college were already on the case long before the college review. In 2013, as part of our strategic plan, the board aspired to double the number of our graduates by 2025. The board knew Manitoba needed more graduates and they saw that the college had to be part of the solution. Having seen solid progress in the early years, the board upped the ante again in 2018, staking out a desire to get to 2,028 grads by 2028.

There were a couple of important underlying conditions that the college review highlighted.

First, Manitoba had the lowest participation rate in post-secondary education in the country. That is to say, fewer Manitobans went to college or university than in other provinces. This had long been the case.

Second, Manitoba had the third-lowest percentage of college seats in the country. That is to say, our balance of university to college seats was more skewed to university than any other provinces except Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. University seats actually represent 76 per cent of the seats available in Manitoba.

It also exposed that more than 85 per cent of government post-secondary money is spent in Winnipeg and, as a result, the education gaps are bigger outside of Winnipeg. But let’s set this point to the side for now.

Fortunately, in the most recent census, there was good news. Manitoba actually advanced and overtook Saskatchewan in terms of post-secondary participation rate. Progress is great to see!

However, on the second item of college seats, we slipped to second last. Newfoundland actually jumped two positions to fourth last.

First off, let me say, given our low post-secondary participation rate in Manitoba, it wouldn’t be ideal to gain college seats by converting university seats. We need a variety of options for people and to meet the needs of our society and economy. It’s just clear that the growth we need has to come on the college side of the ledger, aligned to the labour market, and in large measure outside of Winnipeg.

This also fits with labour market Occupational Forecasts being produced by Manitoba Growth, Enterprise and Trade. Estimates from the 2018-24 forecast show that for job openings requiring a post-secondary education, about three in five required college versus two in five for university.

Again, I don’t think this makes the case for fewer university seats. It simply means that as the system grows — which it needs to do to meet labour market demands — the college portion needs to grow differentially.

Some have realized this for a while, and the work of Higher Education Strategy Associates in 2016-17 reinforced it.

Making these differential investments does not always come easily. It requires courage to do the right thing, and break from historical patterns. The choices may not always be politically popular. Doing the right thing and political expediency are not always bedfellows.

The most recent throne speech signalled that government has indeed summoned that courage. A commitment was made to work with Manitoba’s colleges to increase the availability of training seats. It was a welcome signal from a government that in the past 15 months has demonstrated a strong appetite for investments to support people in their quests to get better lives through expanded training opportunities and new access points.

It followed on the heels of the first round of nursing expansion investments. These included significant expansion at colleges and in rural areas, including new permanent seats in Portage la Prairie and three new rural rotating nursing sites. It preceded the investment of $10 million by the government into moving forward Assiniboine’s Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, which will bring hundreds of new training seats to Brandon to support the growth and development of the agriculture, environment and advanced processing sectors.

This notion of alignment of training opportunities to labour market opportunities is front and centre in the Skills, Talent and Knowledge Strategy. From my perspective, it only makes sense that the growth in an undersized system is going to be targeted to programs for sectors, occupations, geographies and people that have been historically underserved and/or need more attention based on where the economy and society is headed.

Unfortunately, that concept is often twisted by actors who want to politicize it as some sort of attack on post-secondary programs that may appear to have a less direct line of sight to the labour market.

Today, my eldest child turns 18. He completed his high school requirements at the beginning of the month and is following his passion by enrolling in a Bachelor of Arts program at Brandon University. He’s excited to take classes in Religious Studies, Philosophy, English, etc. It’s a great choice for him and luckily one that is readily available in Manitoba.

The need to invest in adding more options to Manitoba’s post-secondary mix like Chemical Engineering Technology, Mechatronics, Food Science Technology, Indigenous Resource Management, Early Childhood Education, Nursing, X-ray Technician, Health Care Aide, Horticulture Technician, etc. in places like Brandon, Dauphin, Portage and Morden doesn’t detract from the important of areas of post-secondary programming where Manitoba has traditionally been strong. It complements it.

It has been clear for a while we’ve needed More College Seats. It was heartening to see the throne speech signal action in addition to words.