Information Tech and the Canadian Economy - Essay Example

Skills and Education Required to fill the Jobs of the Future Question The Kind of Skills and Education that our Young Men and Women Should Have in order to Fill the Jobs of the Future Introduction Young people of Canada require several skills before they enter the job market. The different skills that they acquire go hand in hand with the economic development of a nation. The economy of Canada goes through different challenges but also have different opportunities for the young men and women. The essay will talk about the various skills young men, and women require in developing the economy of Canada. The challenges and opportunities Canada offers will also be part of the essay. Labor Shortage The government of Canada is experiencing a shortage in the labor force due to its aging population. The people who were providing labor force in Canada are retiring while there are no new people to fill up their positions. The number of hours per capita from the senior citizens does not help the economy. The young men and women should, therefore, get an education. They should also have the desire for change to be able to achieve the required amount of labor force to move Canada’s economy (Miner, 2013). Immigration is one of the ways to improve the labor force. There has been a debate on the type of training and preparation the next generation should go through to ensure there are enough people for the jobs in future. In order to prepare the next generation for the labor force, the level of education attainment in the country should be increased (Clever, 2012). The level of education for the young men and women should go beyond high school. It should be through to getting diplomas, degrees, apprenticeship, industry qualification, certificate, etc. The different institutions beyond high school help the young people acquire skills and education for different parts of the labor force. There has been major progress since 2010 as the number of high schools graduations have gone up every year. The high school graduations increase means the rise in enrollment to post-secondary education. The progress has reduced the estimates for the needed labor force in the country. It is both good and bad news for the young men and women in Canada. The reduction of the need for labor force is right in that the shortage of workers in Canada reduces significantly. It is bad in that it slows down the economic recovery and growth with Ontario, New Brunswick, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and PEI being the ones to take most of the pain. The cities named above economies suffered the most when the economy of Canada went down (Miner, 2013). The labor force in the above locations relatively went down because of its population consisting mainly of senior citizens who work for fewer hours and others are completely retired. Educating the youth is necessary for these regions in different types of skills in manufacturing and service based industries. The service based industry needs more of the labor force as the country is slowly moving from manufacturing to service based industries. Education Reforms to Improve the Labor Force The Canadian society is very different from what it was more than twenty years ago. The education system should, therefore, be different from what it initially was many years ago. The curriculum should change to suits the current needs of the country. The country has recently seen more young people enroll for higher education courses to go train for a particular type of skill. The enrollment of the young people on education and learning different skills will help boost the suffering economy (Miner, 2013). The city of Ontario decided to expand elementary education making the children go to school the whole day. The move not only ensures a better foundation for the future leaders education but also give more women time to go get involved in the labor force. The female participation rate in the economy will rise from these changes though it looks too early to tell. Canadian Experience Class Programs will help improve and boost the labor market. Immigration of educated foreigners who have skills in different labor forces is important in the recovery of the economy. The alignment of the labor force with the immigrants enables the needs of the labor force to have fulfillment. One of the regions that have aggressively embraced the use of the skilled immigrants is Saskatchewan. The number of the immigrants is still small although the province has achieved five-folding growth in the number of immigrants coming in the province for the last ten years. The federal government has also increased its investment in the number of persons with disabilities education and training in various courses. There is the visible positive impact on the move by the government as the labor force is growing rapidly by involving more persons with disabilities in it (Branch, 2009). The labor force recovery is however very slow and more senior citizens have to involvement in it. The federal government of Canada has increased the age of retirement from 65 years to 67 years to help improve labor force recovery in Canada. The problematic issue is to be able to align Canada’s current skills with the skills they need to help the economy. The problems are emerging through the geographical mismatches in providing the required skills. Locations like Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia are the places that are majorly affected by the lack of skilled laborers. The same skills that have a shortage in the locations as mentioned above do get use in areas like Maritime. The Labor force in Maritime is excessive such that there are young people that do not have employment. The solution to this problem is the government to have better labor force planning. A study shows that 24.5% of Canadians graduates are underemployed. It shows how bad the labor force planning is as there is a shortage of the skilled labor force while University graduates do not have satisfying jobs (Sorensen, 2009). There is hope though as the government introduced the Canadian Job Grant. The government, business, and provinces have a plan to give grants of up to $15,000 to encourage enrollment of more students into the areas that require skilled laborers. Career Counseling Career counseling should happen to enable the students decide the type of career they would want to do in future. The current students are making career decisions with the help of their parents. Their decisions are however unfortunately old realities. The education hierarchy at the moment in Canada is that one that promotes University education before college education. Apprentice education comes third in line and high school education is given fourth priority when it comes to employment opportunities (Clerk of the Privy Council, 2009). Canada understands of the labor market need to change as the market is changing and will have significant changes in future. The economy in future will be that of skilled and knowledgeable force. The future labor market will concentrate on the technical skills. The students, therefore, need to have a career counseling that leads them to choose a career in the technical field. Knowledge in the technical field will help the countrys economy recovery to move at a fast pace. The gap between the graduate employees salary and that one of trade employees salary is slowly closing. Career counseling is, therefore, necessary to the recovery of the economy. Conclusion Canada needs to improve the skills and education for the young men and women in order to have a significant economic growth for the country. The government is however showing progress in the improvement of its labor force through different methods. The foundation in preparing the young people for the job market is important in ensuring recovery of its economy. References Branch, D.P. (2009). Archived—The Challenge of Change: Building the 21st Century Economy. Retrieved on May 20, 2009 from http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ecic- ceac.nsf/eng/h_gv00456.html Clerk of the Privy Council (2009). Policy Making in the 21st Century: New Challenges for Canada. Retrieved on October 13, 2009 from http://clerk.gc.ca/eng/feature.asp?pageId=120 Clever, T. (2012). Understanding the World Economy. New York: Routledge. Miner, R. (2013). Connecting people with jobs and jobs with people. New Brunswick Telegraph- Journal, A11. Sorensen, C. (2009).The future of jobs in Canada. Maclean’s Journal. Question 2: The Economic Role of Innovation for a More Prosperous Canadian Economy Introduction The federal government of Canada has an economic development plan for the country. The economy of the country plays a major in terms of innovation. The innovations made in Canada are important for its future economy. The country has a Federal Development Agency that is to help create and develop new business ideas in the country. Innovation is important, as it is the mark of the new global economy in the 21st century. The essay will talk about the different ways the economy plays a role in innovation in Canada. The innovation in the country is not doing well compared to its competitors. Brain Power as being the New Economy The new world economy uses the brainpower to make it grow. Innovation is the way forward in making Canada’s economy competes with the global economy. The new world economy demands the use of innovation as it creates better products and improved processes. The products and services created by innovations are of benefit. High-value products in turn mean higher and better productivity and thus economic growth for Canada. An improved economy thus means a better quality of life. Innovation, therefore, contributes to the creation of wealth and economic activity has benefit eventually due to innovation (Expert Panel, 2011). The Canadian dollar is suffering compared to its counterpart US dollar. Innovation will be important in making the Canadian dollar rise in the global economy. Innovation in Canada is suffering, as there are no new ideas in the market. The people of Canada have not invested in innovation for over a long time. Canadian dollar against the world’s economy The Canadian economy can no longer hide behind their weak dollar. The country needs to come up with innovations that will help boost the economic growth of the country. Better quality products in the market mean it will appeal to the United States hence more export to U.S.A. Sustaining Canadas prosperity depends on its level of competitiveness in the global market (Passaris, 2011). There is increased competition in the global market due to the convergence of different factors that include a shrunk communication system that has made the world a global village. There are emerging competitors to Canada that include China, Brazil, India, etc. that are on the wing to global competition. The countries are using research and development together with education to come up with new ideas and innovation. The government is helping them come up with innovative ways to ascend in the global value chain. Countries like Canada are facing significant challenges, as they are accustomed to being at the top of the economic league table. Canada has to come up with innovations that will have the greatest market opportunities. The companies that come up with ideas and products that match the Canadian and global culture and priorities are the ones that will succeed in the current and future economies. Examples of such innovations are medical devices that are the state of the art and perform excellently at a lower cost. The world infrastructure continues to become better by the day, and the people who invent the best wireless network will see their country experience a great economic boom. Canada should look thoroughly at the global outlook and adapt to their ways of doing business that focuses on innovation (Wesson, 2007). The government should invest in research facilities, development while embracing, and commercializing innovation. All these together with improving the labor productivity of the nation are essential ingredients for economic recovery. The methods mentioned adding fuel to the already economic recovery that is underway. Private Sector The private sector should also embrace innovation as one of the ways to boost the economy. Innovation will guarantee success in business, new investments and thus profit for the private sector business owners. The countrys economy depends on the success of the business for it to grow beyond their global competitors. All the private businesses and enterprises all the way from the largest corporations to the small and medium enterprises should embrace innovation in the way they carry out their business. Innovation might seem expensive but not investing in innovation proves to be more expensive than adopting it in future. Canadas federal government should, therefore, step in and give the private sector the financial and foundation support needed for them to grow in innovation (Passaris, 2011). The private sector needs the support in order to implement their innovations from the design stages to the ultimate finished product that is to have an implementation. Innovation using the private sector is an active tool since it reduces costs, enhances profitability and increases and extends competitiveness. Innovation is good for the private sector thus it should also be suitable for the public sector. It is the perfect time for the public sector to embrace change since the economy is facing significant challenges. Despite the governments best effort, the country is still experiencing high unemployment rates, massive public debts, and an elusive economy recovery (FedDev, 2013). All these challenges can be dealt with if the public sector embraces innovation. It is necessary that the innovation have an association with the organizational structure of the governance of the economy in the country. The government must adopt it as a golden standard that will renew our provincial machinery that will improve the efficiency of the public and private sector of the government. Innovation must serve as a catalyst and a tool that will resolve the skyrocketing cost of delivering public services and programs. The people can no longer afford to throw money for the purpose of government’s expenditure. Universities and Technical Schools Role in Innovation Universities and technical schools around the country play a significant role in invention and innovation. The schools empower the next generation innovators, entrepreneurs, and industrialists with the human capital that is necessary for them to navigate through the 21st century global economy. University and technical school students also serve as incubators for technological and scientific inventions that change the world. Their academic mission should be to promote scientific advances and research, which is essential for commercializing innovation. The government has created several centers for science, innovation, and entrepreneurship that act as a role model for the governments idea of modern contemporary universities (McBride, 2014). The centers highlight the spontaneous combination of entrepreneurship and innovation in promoting a sustainable economic growth in the country in the 21st century. The country as a whole needs to draw a clear map on this journey of using innovation as a tool for economic growth. The universities and technical colleges have their traditional role to play which is teaching and research. The schools need to redefine themselves in terms of building bridges between them and the business world. Universities should facilitate the process of moving their innovation to the marketplace that will serve the needs of the civil society more effectively. The universities need to take advantage of the world’s leading-edge technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information technology. The technologies give rise to an entire new market and solve the challenges the economy is facing now. The technologies come up with different ways to help the country such as innovating ways that will make the economic grow in a sustainable environment (McBride, 2014). Health care access in ways that are fiscally sustainable is a major area of innovation that the universities should be working on to bring to the market. Innovation leads to greater productivity and productivity means more goods and services to export thus economic growth to the country. Conclusion Innovation plays the major economic role in making Canada a prosperous economy. Canada’s economy suffered a major setback, but it is on its road to recovery. The economic recovery process will be faster if innovation is part of the process. References Expert Panel Report. (2011). Innovation Canada: A Call to Action. Review of Federal Support to Research and Development Journal. pp. 1-8. FedDev, Ontario (2013). Building a strong and prosperous Canada, through a strong and prosperous Ontario - One-pager. Retrieved on 9th December 2013 from http://www.feddevontario.gc.ca/eic/site/723.nsf/eng/01926.html# McBride, K (2014). Canada’s International Education Strategy. Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada Journal. pp. 1 Passaris, C. (2011). Make innovation a priority for N.B. New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal, A7. Wesson, T. J. (2007). Canada and the New World Economic Order: Strategic Briefings for Canadian Enterprise. Ontario: Captus Press. Read More