Canadians retrain themselves

The old saying goes, "It's never too late to learn". In other words, "It's never too late to mend."

Canada's government might not have thought of that proverb when it initiated a program on continuing education, but the proverb appropriately reflects the government's program on education for adults, especially those who want to pursue a more demanding career or change career, an ongoing trend among the Canadian workforce.

A program of continuing education or lifelong education is now gaining popularity at Canada's community colleges and universities. Many colleges have opened courses on continuing education, which are community-based, accessible, and learning- and industry-focused. More importantly, the courses offered are held in the form of part-time study.

Some universities have also organized continuing education to allow men and women of different professional backgrounds living in big cities and small towns to train and retrain themselves.

Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Colombia, cited its program on continuing studies, which focuses on part-time study for adults held off-campus and for other students seeking to combine university work with other activities. Credit programs offered included degree completion, certificates and diplomas, at the university campus, by day and evening.

Lecturers who teach at continuing studies programs are academics and professionals from different backgrounds who are experienced in their fields, such as engineers, accountants and practicing lawyers and public relations officers.

College and university lecturers and administrators in Canada are well-paid by the country's standards, to allow them to concentrate on their jobs. Vice president of education and student services of Camosun College Bob Priebe PhD said a lecturer at the college is paid C$75,000 (Rp 412 million) per annum (pa), while a senior administrator is paid $100,000. Top officials like the vice president and president of a college are paid $120,000 to $150,000 pa. The salary is relatively high compared with salaries received by civil servants and nurses, who receive $ 40,000 and $45,000 per year respectively.

Cooperative, or co-op, education is another favorite program with students of many Canadian colleges. The program combines academic study with relevant full-time paid work to mix theory and practice, test career possibilities and earn income.

Business supports co-op education because engagement with educational institutions organizing the program means community services that will create a good corporate image. More importantly it functions as off-site training, training support of current manufacturing employees and maintains a supply of trained, skilled workers.

For educational institutions engagement with businesses through co-op education means many things. Colleges benefit from cooperation with businesses in identifying skill requirements and skills needed by the market, an input that is helpful in designing curriculum and instructional labs, and promotion of their products. Lastly, cooperation secures a supply of equipment, materials, teaching and technical support, needed by the colleges.

Many big colleges in Canada have career information officers or advisory boards, whose members are responsible for providing direction to colleges, including conducting market intelligence such as monitoring skills needed by the market force and designing curriculums.

But the success of colleges in wooing businesses to cooperate with them varies from one institution to another, depending upon the ability and perseverance of their faculty in approaching the businesses concerned.

George Brown College (GBC), a community college with a total enrollment of more than 20,000 students, located in downtown Toronto, or Canada's capital for finance and industry, spent two years approaching businesses. E. Joy McKinnon, the dean of George Brown, said the work finally paid off with the donation of equipment worth millions of Canadian dollars for instructional laboratories that replicate those found in the microelectronics industry and in optoeletronics manufacturing, including assembly and testing processes.

Now GBC has more than 30 partners, comprising universities and big companies, such as Dell Computer Corporation, Alpha Metals and Siemens Dematic. The ratio of investment by the corporate partners and Ontario provincial government is $6 million (approximately Rp 33 billion) and $ 5.6million.

"The key to the successful implementation of co-op education is a strong industrial base," said Bob Priebe.