13 March 2012

Innovation Finishing School: One Year College Programs

An article in today's Globe reinforces the value of one year post graduate programs colleges and polytechnics offer. These programs are a finishing school for many with undergraduate degrees seeking additional skills and credential applicable to the job market. College business programs aim to create job-ready grads features George Brown College business programs, which give students practical education and industry internships as a fast track into the world of work.

As I noted earlier, this is part of the missing link in the evolution of education in Canada: 22% of 500000 students (50000 graduates) in the 9 Canadian Polytechnics already have a university credential. The missing link here is in programs such as those featured in today's article. Key here is the idea of pathways--from college to university, and university to college. It is time to break down traditional, siloed thinking of the types of education (university vs college; Type A vs Type B tertiary), and move forward on what employers need: graduates with people-centred innovation skills readily applicable to today's and tomorrow's job market. The innovation finishing schools that are college and polytechnic post graduate programs are an excellent avenue for training the talent needed for the innovation economy.

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