Search

Generative AI platforms like ChatGPT have exploded into our cultural awareness this year. Across post-secondary institutions, it was immediately apparent that faculty were eager to explore and discuss what this potentially disruptive technology might mean for them, their courses and their students. We wanted to create an opportunity for that discussion and to get a truer sense of initial faculty reactions than what sensational media headlines were offering. This working paper outlines the results of a facilitated online forum, open to faculty and staff from two institutions in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia in January 2023. Our session invited participants to test ChatGPT, reflecting on its strengths and limitations, and then talk through the potential impacts on instructors, our students, and post-secondary education in general of different approaches: ignore it, fight it, and embrace it. Analysis of participant contributions to polls, group discussions and a highly active chat space provide a snapshot of how faculty and staff were feeling and what they were doing in response to ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms. While the data seems to indicate a relatively optimistic take at this early point in the AI revolution, excerpts from discussions and debates do indicate a range of emotions and reactions--a range that will likely only continue to widen with the continuing release of ever more capable AI.

While international alliances among research universities are relatively well established, the challenges for the small liberal arts college to execute a meaningful global collaboration can be much more difficult, due both to the much smaller size of the institution, its more limited resources, and its smaller and more intimate culture centered on undergraduate teaching and learning. A new alliance of liberal arts colleges known as the Pacific Alliance of Liberal Arts Colleges (PALAC) was established in 2021 with the purpose to better articulate the global components of liberal arts education, and to collaborate on key projects that will build collective capacity for student-centered liberal arts education that engages with the world's most pressing problems. PALAC contains nine of the best liberal arts institutions from across the Pacific Region, including institutions in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Canada, and the United States. This essay describes the origins, motivations, and context of the creation of PALAC, its member institutions, and some of the initial projects planned by the new organization, and goals for global impact for PALAC.

Intersectionality highlights that different aspects of individuals' identities are not independent of each other. Instead, they interact to create unique identities and experiences, which cannot be understood by analysing each identity dimension separately or in isolation from their social and historical contexts. Intersectional approaches in this way question the common classification of individuals into groups (male vs. female, immigrant vs. native etc.), which raises important implications for the policy-making process. In education, analyses with an intersectional lens have the potential to lead to better tailored and more effective policies and interventions related to participation, learning outcomes, students' attitudes towards the future, identification of needs, and socio-emotional well-being. Consequently, as elaborated in this paper, some countries have adjusted their policies in the areas of governance, resourcing, developing capacity, promoting school-level interventions and monitoring, to account for intersectionality. Gaps and challenges related to intersectional approaches are also highlighted.

Module A of the OECD Higher Education Policy Survey (HEPS) 2022 elicited information on policies to promote digitalisation of higher education in OECD member and accession countries. In total, 30 jurisdictions responded, providing comparative information on various areas of digitalisation policy, from regulation and governance to financial and human resources. The survey results provide insight into the role of public authorities in guiding, coordinating and resourcing the digital transformation of higher education institutions. The analysis and comparative tables in this working paper provide insights that can support the development of strategic digitalisation policies.

In 2020, the federal government implemented the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) to provide financial support to employees, self-employed individuals and students directly affected by COVID-19. The CERB was available for individuals who stopped working or were working reduced hours because of COVID-19, and who met various other eligibility criteria. CERB applicants received $2,000 for an initial four-week period and could reapply for additional periods, eventually extending to 28 weeks, for a maximum benefit of $14,000. The benefit covered the period from March 15 to September 26, 2020. The CESB was available to students enrolled in a postsecondary educational program leading to a degree, diploma, or certificate, who were ineligible for the CERB or EI benefits, but met various other eligibility criteria. The benefit was active between May 10 and August 29, 2020. The CESB addressed a gap left by the CERB, which excluded students who were not employed at the start of the pandemic but would typically be looking for work during the summer of 2020. This paper provides insights into the differences in the rate of receipt of CERB and CESB of postsecondary students who received emergency benefit payments in 2020. Emergency benefit receipt is examined along various educational and socio-demographic characteristics to highlight some of the key differences. The analysis is limited to Canadian citizens and permanent residents who were enrolled full-time or part-time in a public postsecondary institution in the fall of 2019 in a program leading to a degree, diploma, or certificate.

Calls for increased monitoring and evaluation of education policies and practices have not, so far, included widespread and consistent assessments of the inclusiveness of education settings. Measuring inclusion in education has proven to be a challenging exercise, due not only to the complexity and different uses of the concept, but also to its holistic nature. Indeed, measuring inclusion implies analysing a variety of policy areas within education systems, while also considering the different roles of the system, the school and the classroom. This paper discusses the application of the input-process-outcome model to the measurement of inclusion in education, and key indicators that can be adopted by education systems and schools to this end. It makes considerations relevant to policy makers when designing indicators to measure inclusion, such as the extent of their application, the constraints related to data disaggregation and the relevance of intersectional approaches to inclusion.

This paper examines how international education (IE) as a tool of government foreign policy is challenged in an era of new geopolitics, where China's growing ambitions have increased rivalry with the West. It compares U.S. and Canada as cases first, by examining rationales and approaches to IE in both countries, second, IE relations with China before conflict and third, current controversies and government policy responses to IE relations with China. The paper concludes identifying contextual factors that shape each country's engagement with IE, but suggests that moving forward, the future of IE in a world of new geopolitics is likely to be far more complex and conflictual.

Many factors impact one's ability to complete an apprenticeship program. According to the 2015 National Apprenticeship Survey, the most commonly stated reasons for not completing an apprenticeship program were job instability, receiving a better job offer and financial constraints. This survey also showed that apprentices who dropped out of their programs experienced difficulties securing permanent employment with adequate benefits and were more likely to be self-employed (Frank & Jovic, 2017). In addition, those who discontinued had a lower median employment income compared with those who completed their training (Jin, Langevin, Lebel and Haan, 2020). Using data from the Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (ELMLP), this study looks at apprentices who registered between 2008 and 2010 and discontinued their apprenticeship programs within six years of registration. Their future interactions with the Canadian postsecondary education system, up to 2020, are then profiled.

This fact sheet explores the association between parental income and the pathways of young adults in postsecondary education for students who began their studies in the 2012/2013 academic year. Students from low-income families have previously been shown to have lower rates of educational access and attainment. This fact sheet focuses on persistence and graduation indicators, which are now released annually, and furthers the analysis of these indicators by adding a parental income quartile dimension. Overall, the findings provide the following insights: (1) Students in the highest parental income quartile remained enrolled (persisted) and graduated at higher rates than students from the lowest parental income quartile for all selected educational qualifications and groupings. The differences in indicators by the level of parental income were more notable for the graduation rates than for the persistence rates; and (2) For students who graduated, those in the highest parental income quartile graduated as fast or faster than students in the lowest parental income quartile for all selected educational qualifications and groupings, though these differences were generally small. These findings are consistent with similar studies regarding postsecondary experiences of students by socioeconomic status.

The EU Working Group on Learning for Sustainability (LfS) is currently exploring how policy action can assist in the development and introduction of school curricula and appropriate pedagogies to improve opportunities for learning for sustainability in Europe's schools. This paper brings forward input on how learning for environmental sustainability can be strengthened by policy actions to develop a framework and relevant resources and capabilities across the Member States. It also summarises some of the key challenges that need to be addressed for any LfS curriculum activity to have an impact. The paper considers: (1) the challenges of curriculum work in the LfS space and what lessons may be taken from examples of well-regarded practice in this area; and (2) sets out some key considerations relating to the specification, resourcing, and capacity-building necessary to develop this area of curriculum practice. It closes with a consideration of the main policy barriers and opportunities for those involved in shaping, designing, and introducing LfS curriculum policy. The purpose of this paper is to encourage better understanding of the challenges of curriculum action in an area of policy work where countries vary considerably in readiness and current practice. [This paper was prepared with assistance from Louise O'Reilly. Paper prepared for the EU Working Group on schools: Learning for Sustainability (Sep 15-16, 2022).]

We study the effects of the unionization of faculty at Canadian universities from 1970-2022 using an event-study design. Using administrative data which covers the full universe of faculty salaries, we find strong evidence that unionization leads to both average salary gains and compression of the distribution of salaries. Our estimates indicate that salaries increase on average by 2 to over 5 percent over the first 6 years post unionization. These effects are driven largely by gains in the bottom half of the wage distribution with little evidence of any impact at the top end. Our evidence indicates that the wage effects are primarily concentrated in the first half of our sample period. We do not find any evidence of an impact on employment.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, several unprecedented government interventions related to COVID-19--including the closure of non-essential businesses, travel restrictions and public health measures limiting public interactions--have been put in place. These measures, implemented by public health officials across Canada, had a clear impact on the Canadian labour market, as businesses and institutions in a variety of industries announced layoffs, reduced employment hours and halted many on-the-job opportunities. In response, to support Canadians facing the labour market impact of the COVID-19 economic shutdown, the Government of Canada introduced a temporary benefit, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). The CERB paid $500 a week to those who made at least $5,000 in the preceding 12 months and whose income was drastically reduced because of the pandemic. It was a temporary program introduced on March 15, 2020, and was replaced by Employment Insurance and other recovery benefits on September 27 of the same year. The COVID-19 pandemic had large impacts on many of those in the skilled trades, as these jobs often require hands-on and close-proximity interactions. However, journeypersons in different trades had different impacts. Some sectors deemed non-essential services were hit harder than sectors deemed essential services. In addition, geographic variations in easing and reinstating restrictions over time affected journeypersons and apprentices across regions differently. Using data from the Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform, this study examines the proportion of journeypersons who received the CERB among those who certified between 2008 and 2019. By examining the proportions across trades, geography and population groups, this study can provide further insight into how the early months of the pandemic affected those in the skilled trades and the differing impacts across trades and groups.

When the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into fruition in the early 1990s, there were high hopes and expectations on what this emerging economic block could achieve. Although the agreement involved extensive conversations that led to regulations that facilitated trade across the region--the main intent of NAFTA--the same was not true for the higher education environment. Critics have argued that NAFTA's heavy focus on trade left little room for similar harmonization on issues like higher education. From this perspective, it is evident that if efforts to improve higher education are to gain traction in the trilateral relationship, they must be linked with regional trade and competitiveness. Yet even though NAFTA was not the vehicle for further cooperation on higher education, colleges and universities across Canada, Mexico, and the United States did embrace the opportunity and enthusiastically engaged in conversations that prompted trilateral collaboration. This article follows the key agreements that influenced and guided the early stages of NAFTA collaboration among higher education institutions, as well as developments that kept engagement across the three countries active. It also provides an initial list of areas in which future collaboration might focus. [The report was published in partnership with the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. This working paper will be published as a chapter in the forthcoming book, "North America 2.0: Forging a Continental Future."]

Several concurrent trends are increasing the likelihood that short courses, microcredentials, and flexible learning pathways will become a regular and even dominant feature of education and training globally. This policy paper reflects on these trends with special reference to the post-secondary education sector, and explores ways to organize short courses and micro-credentials as effective tools for offering up-to-date, quality learning to much larger segments of the population, creating flexible learning pathways, fostering learner autonomy, and formally acknowledging competencies. The paper discusses existing definitions and proposes a universal working definition for micro-credentials developed by UNESCO. It also describes 10 challenges that potentially threaten the successful roll-out of microcredentials. Challenges range from concerns -- some justified, others less so -- about the quality of pedagogy to doubts about level, credit points, progression, coherence, assessment, certification, and labour market value. The paper assesses each challenge and identifies actions that could contribute to the successful roll-out of short courses and micro-credentials. These include a functioning national qualifications framework, transparent recognition procedures, internal and external quality assurance, reliable assessment, facilities for digital storage, funding for learners and providers, and stakeholder engagement. Lastly, success also requires the development of easily accessible digital registers of learners' achievements, micro-credential qualifications, short courses, providers, assessors, awarders, quality assurance agencies, credential evaluators, employers, and job and promotion opportunities. The paper draws on country experiences, studies, and projects from all world regions, and highlights good practices. It concludes with seven recommendations targeted at public policy-makers to foster coordinated action, including further research to better understand short-course provision at country level and obstacles to the development of micro-credentials, as well as their added value for individual learners, the economy, and society at large.

This study combines information from British Columbia administrative school data, the Postsecondary Student Information System, and the Registered Apprenticeship Information System to analyze the postsecondary and apprenticeship enrolment rates of high school graduates with and without special education needs, in the six years following graduation. The report answers four questions: (1) Are high school graduates with certain types of special education needs less likely to attend postsecondary education than graduates without special education needs? (2) Are graduates with certain types of special education needs more likely to delay entering postsecondary education? (3) If so, does the gap in enrolment close over time? and (4) Are graduates with certain types of special education needs more or less likely to follow certain programs of study (e.g., apprenticeships versus undergraduate degree programs) than graduates without special education needs? Although gifted status is considered to be a special education need in British Columbia, graduates with gifted status are excluded from this analysis. Preliminary analysis suggested that graduates with gifted status generally have different patterns of postsecondary enrolment than graduates with other special education needs.

Principals (policy makers) have debated the progress in U.S. student performance for a half century or more. Informing these conversations, survey agents have administered seven million psychometrically linked tests in math and reading in 160 waves to national probability samples of selected cohorts born between 1954 and 2007. This study is the first to assess consistency of results by agency. We find results vary by agent, but consistent with Flynn effects, gains are larger in math than reading, except for the most recent period. Non-whites progress at a faster pace. Socio-economically disadvantaged white, black, and Hispanic students make greater progress when tested in elementary school, but that advantage attenuates and reverses itself as students age. We discuss potential moderators.

Developed as one of the resources within the context of the OECD /Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI)ERI project entitled "Fostering and assessing students' creative and critical thinking skills in higher education", this paper focuses on ways in which students' creativity and critical thinking can be fostered in higher education by contextualising such efforts within the broader framework of academics' professional learning. Intended for system or institution-level stakeholders, the paper draws on the empirical literature, review articles, and meta-analyses, reports, institutional websites, and input from project participants to: (a) highlight models and best practices of academics' professional learning as well as institutional and individual factors which render professional learning desirable, valued, and effective, and (b) elaborate key elements in professional learning which institutions can introduce and/or strengthen to promote instruction that fosters cognitive, social and emotional processes associated with students' creativity and critical thinking.

Indigenous peoples have rightful aspirations for their languages and cultures, supported under international conventions, jurisdictional treaties, laws, policies and enquiry recommendations. Additionally, the inclusion of Indigenous languages in education can impact positively on Indigenous students' learning, engagement, identity and well-being, and can increase involvement of their communities in education. This working paper provides an overview of Indigenous languages learning in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and Canada. These three jurisdictions participate in an OECD initiative "Promising Practices in Supporting Success for Indigenous Students," designed to help education systems to improve the experiences and outcomes of Indigenous students in education. The significance of Indigenous languages constitutes common ground between the diverse Indigenous peoples in these three countries. But learning in Indigenous languages and learning Indigenous languages follow diverse pathways with local language programme designs that fit the different historical and contemporary language contexts within and between the countries.

This article looks at the labour market outcomes of 2015 postsecondary graduates three years after graduation. Specifically, it examines their employment status, job permanency, relatedness of their job or business to their 2015 educational program, the degree to which graduates feel qualified for their job, their employment income and their job satisfaction. This article answers the question: How are graduates of 2015 faring in terms of their integration into the labour market?

Students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or somewhere else on the gender/sexuality spectrum (LGBTQI+) are among the diverse student groups in need of extra support and protection in order to succeed in education and reach their full potential. Because they belong to a minority that is often excluded by heteronormative/cisgender people, they are often the targets of physical and psychological harassment. Such discrimination can place them at risk for isolation, reduced academic achievement, and physical and mental harm. This paper provides a brief history of how the LGBTQI+ population has often been misunderstood and labelled in order to understand challenges faced by students who identify as a part of this population. It continues by considering supportive educational policies and programmes implemented from national to local levels across OECD countries. Finally, the paper considers policy gaps and discusses policy implications to strengthen equity and inclusion for LGBTQI+ students.

This study uses longitudinal data combining information from the Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS) with data from personal income tax (T1 Family File) to analyze the impact of short-duration credentials (certificates and diplomas from colleges and universities), completed after an undergraduate degree, on the outcomes on the labour market of graduates from Canadian public universities.

In both Canada and the United States, immigrants constitute a disproportionately large share of the supply of university-educated labour trained in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. This article examines the Canada-U.S. differences in the occupational skill utilization and earnings of STEM-educated immigrant workers. Using data from the 2016 Census for Canada and the combined 2015 to 2017 American Community Survey, this analysis focuses on immigrants with a university degree in a STEM field who were aged 25 to 64 and arrived as adults. Over one-half of STEM-educated immigrant workers in both countries held non-STEM jobs. In Canada, only about 20% of these immigrants with non-STEM jobs worked in occupations that required a university education, compared with 48% in the United States. There was a large earnings gap between STEM-educated immigrants and native-born workers in Canada, even after adjusting for sociodemographic differences, while no corresponding earnings gap existed in the United States. The earnings gap in Canada was particularly large for STEM-educated immigrants holding non-STEM jobs. Possible explanations for these results are discussed.

In Canada, immigrants represented more than half of the population in the prime working ages with at least a bachelor's degree in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields of study in 2016. They accounted for three-quarters of engineering and computer science graduates with a master's or doctorate degree. This paper examines the skill utilization and earnings of employed STEM-educated immigrants by field of study and degree level. Compared with the Canadian-born with similar levels of education and in similar fields of study, immigrants with a bachelor's degree had considerably lower skill utilization rates and earnings outcomes than those of doctoral degree holders. This is mostly because immigrant doctoral graduates are more likely to be educated in a Western country. By field of study, immigrant engineering graduates, particularly at the bachelor's level, had relatively weaker skill utilization rates and earnings outcomes; immigrant computer science graduates did somewhat better. The slightly more than half of STEM-educated immigrants who did not find a STEM job had the weakest skill utilization rates and earnings outcomes. Much of the gap between the earnings of immigrant and Canadian-born graduates was associated with differences in country of education. STEM immigrants educated in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom or France had outcomes similar to the Canadian-born.

The rapidly growing supply of university-educated workers from both immigration and domestic educational institutions, coupled with relatively slack demand for educated labour, has raised concerns about skill use in the Canadian economy. This study uses census data from 2001 to 2016 to compare trends in over-education among recent immigrants and Canadian-born youth. The study showed that only about one-half of the growth in university-educated workers over this 15-year period was matched with growth in jobs requiring a university education. University-educated recent immigrants became more concentrated in jobs requiring less than a university education. In comparison, Canadian-born youth with a university degree became less likely to work in jobs requiring high school or less education.

This study compares the differences in the mismatch between the education and occupations of immigrants in Canada and the United States, operationalized by over-education. It further explores how the cross-country differences may be related to the supply of and demand for university-educated immigrants and the way they are selected. Using comparable data and three measures of over-education, this study found that university-educated recent immigrants in Canada were much more likely to be overeducated than their U.S. peers. The over-education rate gap between recent immigrants and the native-born was much more pronounced in Canada than in the United States. In addition, while labour market demand was associated with a lower level of over-education in both countries, a greater supply of university-educated recent immigrants was positively associated with a likelihood of over-education among recent immigrants in Canada, but not in the United States. Furthermore, in Canada, the over-education rate was significantly lower among immigrants who were admitted through some form of employer selection (e.g., immigrants who worked in skilled jobs in Canada before immigration) than those who were admitted directly from abroad. Overall, this study provides insight into how the immigration system interacts with broader aspects of the labour market to shape the labour market outcomes of immigrants.

Reducing the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training (NEET) is one of the targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8. This has become an important indicator that is monitored by many countries and international organizations since youth NEET are prone to long-term economic and social difficulties. Although Canada-centric studies on youth NEET exist, they tend to focus on sociodemographic characteristics and on educational and employment outcomes. This report aims to expand the information on Canadian youth NEET by examining various sociodemographic and psychosocial characteristics. It also aims to explore whether different subgroups of youth NEET experience similar psychosocial characteristics. This study is based on data from three recent Canadian Community Health Survey cycles (2015 to 2017). This study indicated various sociodemographic and psychosocial differences between Canadian youth NEET and non-NEET, and also highlighted the diversity among different youth NEET subgroups. Future research should continue to identify risk and protective factors related to NEET status by distinguishing among the subgroups of this population.

The number of temporary residents that hold a postsecondary study permit in Canada has increased rapidly in recent years, going from 201,186 in 2009 to 294,020 in 2015--a 46.1% increase. The purpose of this study is to describe the postsecondary experience and early labour market outcomes of study permit holders (international students). The study found that about two-thirds of postsecondary study permit holders actually enrolled in postsecondary programs in 2015 (up from about half in 2009). International students were somewhat more likely to graduate from their postsecondary program than Canadian students within five years of initial registration. However, international postsecondary students were less likely than Canadian students to combine school and work. Furthermore, only about one-third of international students who graduated from a postsecondary program remained and worked in Canada six years after graduation. Among those who remained and worked in the country after graduation, former international students earned slightly more than Canadian students (and slightly less than permanent residents). However, international students generally possess more characteristics associated with higher earnings than Canadian students. When international and Canadian students with similar demographics, educational qualifications and pre-graduation work experience were compared, it was shown that international students earned less than Canadian students six years after graduation.

Occupations related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are generally associated with high pay and contribute to the development of new technology. Continued growth is expected for STEM occupations, which would provide STEM-educated workers with additional labour market opportunities. However, less is known about the extent to which STEM graduates enter into and remain in STEM occupations in Canada. This study uses data from the 2006 and 2016 longitudinal census files to examine the occupational pathways of women and men with postsecondary credentials in STEM fields. Generally, male STEM graduates were more likely than female STEM graduates to be employed in a STEM occupation. The occupational pathways of male and female STEM graduates also differed. Among STEM graduates who were employed in a STEM occupation in 2006, women were more likely than men to have moved to a non-STEM occupation by 2016. Younger STEM graduates were more likely to exit a STEM occupation than older graduates, and men and women with college-level STEM credentials were more likely to leave a STEM occupation than their counterparts with a bachelor's degree. Some differences in the occupational mobility of men and women with STEM credentials were associated with their field of study. For example, men who studied mathematics or computer and information sciences were less likely than their counterparts who studied engineering or engineering technology to exit a STEM occupation between 2006 and 2016. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the likelihood of leaving a STEM occupation among women who had studied in these two fields. Lastly, the wage growth of male and female STEM graduates who persisted in a STEM occupation between 2006 and 2016 was not significantly different from the wage growth of their counterparts who had moved from a STEM occupation to a non-STEM occupation. [This study was funded by the Department for Women and Gender Equality.]

Traditionally, four-year bachelor's degree programs have been available only at universities. More recently, they have been offered at some community colleges--particularly in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Using linked administrative postsecondary graduate and personal income tax data, this study finds that college bachelor's degree (CBD) holders earn about 12% more per year, on average, than university bachelor's degree (UBD) holders two years after graduation. Almost all of this gap can be explained by the different field of study choices made by the two groups of students. Compared with their university counterparts, CBD holders were more likely to take programs in business, management and public administration or health and related fields (fields generally associated with higher-than-average earnings), and less likely to take education, humanities or social and behavioural sciences and non-professional law programs (fields generally associated with lower-than-average earnings). The remainder of the earnings gap could be explained by the fact that CBD holders were more than two years older than UBD holders, on average. The study also showed that UBD holders registered faster earnings growth between two and five years after graduation and were more likely to enroll in graduate studies than their counterparts from colleges. Moreover, CBD programs were generally concentrated in colleges that were situated near a university and associated with above-average earnings (compared with other colleges) among their diploma holders.

Since UNESCO's Salamanca Declaration in 1994, inclusive education has progressively attracted attention in international debates around education policy. While some evidence exists on the positive impact that inclusive education reforms can have on the academic and personal outcomes of diverse students -- and in particular of students with special education needs -- limited information is available on the economic sustainability of such reforms. Starting from the literature on the correlations between education and individuals' life outcomes, this paper reviews the existing evidence on the potential benefits and costs of inclusive education reforms. Specifically, the paper discusses the evidence on the shortcomings of current education settings for diverse groups of students -- with specific sections on students with special education needs; immigrant and refugee students; ethnic groups, national minorities and Indigenous peoples; gifted students; female and male students; and LGBTQI+ (which stands for 'lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex') students. It highlights the individual and societal costs deriving from the low academic, social and emotional outcomes of these students and the socio-economic costs these yield for societies. Where possible, the paper also presents evidence on the effects of inclusive education reforms on diverse student groups.

As a result of its direct link to the labour market, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) plays an important role in equipping the modern workforce with in-demand skills. This discussion paper aims to inspire the introduction of entrepreneurial learning in TVET towards a fully mainstreamed approach, whereby entrepreneurial learning is integrated into the role, function and delivery of TVET systems for the benefit of all learners. The paper provides insight into the different approaches to mainstreaming entrepreneurial learning and illustrates the contribution of the key pillars that make up the entrepreneurial learning ecosystem. This is supported by a series of practical examples from TVET systems around the world, illustrating how entrepreneurial learning is being transformed into reality by governments, TVET systems, communities, networks, institutions, teachers, trainers and TVET learners. This paper explores five elements of the entrepreneurial learning ecosystem: (1) Developing policy for entrepreneurial learning; (2) Curricula and pedagogies; (3) Supporting teachers and trainers; (4) Learning modes other than formal curricula; and (5) Career paths and start-ups.

This paper looks at the popularity of after-school mathematics by focusing on the Kumon and Russian School of Mathematics models. In 1954, Toru Kumon, a high school math teacher in Japan, designed a series of math worksheets to help improve the test scores of his son Takeshi, a second grader. Toru's goal was to teach Takeshi how to learn independently through the worksheets and improve his calculation skills prior to reaching high school. By working every day on the problems, Takeshi was able to reach the level of differential and integral calculus when he was just a few months into the sixth grade. The Kumon model is based on four elements: (1) Individualized instruction; (2) Self-learning; (3) Small-step worksheets; and (4) Kumon instructors. Parents who want to give their children a head start in math before elementary school can enroll them in Kumon as young as age 3. From that age they can stay with the program through high school or until they complete the program. In the U.S. alone, Kumon has grown from more than 182,000 students and nearly 1,300 centers in 2008 to more than 279,000 students and more than 1500 centers in 2018. While the Kumon method involves repeating mathematical processes until students over-learn them to automaticity, the Russian School of Mathematics (RSM) promotes itself as believing in just the opposite. The RSM model was founded by Inessa Rifkin in 1997 with Irina Khavinson, a friend, educator, and fellow Russian immigrant, after concluding that her son Ilya was not receiving the same mathematics education that she received as a student in the Soviet Union. Their goal was to translate their own experiences with specialized Russian math programs into a school that offered the same opportunity to American children. Two decades later about 25,000 students are enrolled with RSM today, in 40 locations in 11 states and Canada. Russian School of Mathematics students attend a classroom once per week for varying lengths of time, depending on grade: 90 minutes for kindergarten through third grade; two hours for grades four through six; and two-and-a-half hours for grades seven and above. Algebra and geometry are on separate tracks starting in the sixth grade, though students may enroll in both. This paper reviews each model's methods, highlights their best practices, and shows how they complement or run parallel with mathematics taught in traditional classrooms.

This paper focuses on the potential of competency assessment to support the long-term growth of the labour market by facilitating the appropriate employment of skilled immigrants. A competency-informed approach involves looking holistically at an individual's ability to apply knowledge and skills with appropriate judgment in a defined setting. The report details several key projects World Education Services (WES) will undertake as part of our commitment to a more holistic, competency-informed assessment model of immigrants' knowledge, skills, and abilities. Ensuring that immigrants have access to pathways to employment, education, and training must be an essential piece of a long-term plan for Canadian growth and prosperity.

The aim of the OECD Career Readiness project is to identify patterns of teenage attitudes and activities that are associated with better transitions into employment by analysing multiple national longitudinal datasets. This paper looks for further evidence of the link between teenage activities, experiences and career-related thinking and adult career outcomes by analysing 10 new datasets from eight countries. Overall, the results of this paper find further evidence that secondary school students who explore, experience and think about their futures in work frequently encounter lower levels of unemployment, receive higher wages and are happier in their careers as adults. The findings of this paper are analysed together with the evidence from the two previous working papers of the Career Readiness project, concluding that there is international evidence to support 11 out of the 14 potential indicators that were explored as indicators of career readiness.

It has been well-documented that postsecondary graduates, on average, earn considerably more than others. Consequently, increasing postsecondary enrollment among youth from lower-income families--through targeted student aid or community outreach programs--may constitute an effective mechanism for promoting upward income mobility. However, there currently exists no evidence of the benefits of a postsecondary education (PSE) for youth from lower-income families per se. Using postsecondary administrative records and income tax records, this study bridges this information gap by estimating the association between earnings and PSE by level of parental income among a cohort of Ontario postsecondary graduates and a comparison group of Ontario youth who did not enroll in a postsecondary institution. The results suggest that the estimated earnings premiums associated with PSE are large and positive for youth from families across the income distribution. In relative terms, the premium is considerably larger for youth from the bottom income quintile than for their counterparts from the top income quintile. Supplementary analyses suggest that these results are not likely due to biases arising from omitted cognitive and noncognitive skills, or to differences in the choice of field of study between youth from different levels of parental income. [This project was funded by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO).]

Using 2016 Canadian Census data, this article examines the socioeconomic status of the second generation of immigrants, whose population has become increasingly diverse. The analysis focuses on group differences by visible minority status in two aspects relating to socioeconomic mobility: (1) intergenerational progress in educational attainment, which indicates the ability to achieve higher education regardless of parents' education, and (2) the relationship between education and labour market outcomes, which reveals the ability to convert educational qualifications into economic well-being. The results in general paint a very positive picture for the children of immigrants regarding the first aspect, while mixed results are evident for the second aspect. In particular, some visible minority groups are characterized by high educational attainment and high earnings, while some other groups experience low education mobility and low labour market returns to education. These results suggest that there are divergent paths of socioeconomic integration among the second generation.

The Canadian literature on postsecondary access has identified many of its key determinants including parental education and income, academic performance, and sex. However, relatively little work has investigated the independent role of disability in postsecondary enrollment. This study fills that gap by estimating the relationship between mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions diagnosed in childhood (available from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth [NLSCY]) and postsecondary enrollment during early adulthood (available from the tax credits on the T1 Family File [T1FF]). The study is possible as a result of the recent linkage between the NLSCY and T1FF. The findings suggest that 77% of youth who were not diagnosed with any long-term health condition in their school years (the comparison group) enrolled in postsecondary education (PSE) by their early 20s. In contrast, 60% of youth diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental condition (NDC) enrolled in PSE in the same time frame (a gap of 17 percentage points), while only 48% of youth diagnosed with a mental health condition (MHC) enrolled in PSE (a gap of 29 percentage points compared with youth in the comparison group). Youth diagnosed with both an NDC and an MHC were even less likely to enroll, with only 36% going on to PSE (41 percentage points behind youth in the comparison group). Differences in sex, academic performance and family background (e.g., parental income and education) explain only about one-third of these gaps. Among the MHCs, the most common diagnosis was Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Youth with an ADHD diagnosis were less likely to pursue PSE than youth diagnosed with other types of MHCs such as emotional, psychological or nervous difficulties. These findings suggest that youth diagnosed with NDCs and MHCs in their school years face barriers to enrolling in PSE that are distinct from those confronting other youth.

Given the time and money invested in higher education by students, parents and governments, there is considerable interest in the economic outcomes of postsecondary graduates. Most assessments of recent graduates have focused on their short-term, early labour market results. As new entrants to the labour force, recent postsecondary graduates may be particularly vulnerable to the economic cycle. Consequently, comparisons of short-term outcomes across graduating cohorts may be highly dependent on prevailing economic conditions and may not reflect the longer-term returns on investments. This is the first study to compare the long-term labour market outcomes of two cohorts of young postsecondary graduates using linked census and tax data. Specifically, graduates who were 26 to 35 years old in 1991 were followed from 1991 to 2005 (when they were 40 to 49 years old) and compared with a similarly aged 2001 cohort, which was followed from 2001 to 2015. The results suggest that median cumulative earnings were higher among members of the more recent cohort of male and female postsecondary graduates. Increases were observed across all postsecondary levels and across most major disciplines where sample sizes were large enough to permit analysis. Also, no discipline registered a decline in cumulative earnings. Although the economic conditions faced by the 2001 cohort over the 15-year study period were generally more favourable, this cohort also registered higher earnings than the 1991 cohort during the latter portion of the period (i.e., when the 2001 cohort was faced with an economic recession). Furthermore, the initial labour market conditions upon graduation (an important determinant of career earnings) were similar for both cohorts. The improvements in long-term earnings for postsecondary graduates are important in light of the significant increase in the number of graduates over the period. However, the results also indicate that the number of years of union membership declined or remained steady across cohorts of male and female postsecondary graduates. Furthermore, while women with postsecondary qualifications registered increases in the number of years of employer-sponsored pension plan coverage, their male counterparts experienced mixed results depending on their level of postsecondary studies.