Students are having a difficult time finding employment
after graduation. Although post-secondary institutions equip their students
with technical skills relevant to specific fields, there is often a lack of
training in human skills, such as fundamental, personal management, and
teamwork skills. Not-for-profit organizations (NPOs) and academic institutions often
need support. Work-study placements and experiential learning are opportunities
for students to gain human skills and for NPOs and academic institutions to get
some help they may need. As a result, the University of Saskatchewan had
students undertake work-study placements at NPOs and Kwantlen Polytechnic
University provided experiential learning opportunities to their students.
University to unemployment: the reality of post-secondary life
It is common to know a recent university or college graduate
who is struggling to find employment. Although
post-secondary graduates perform better than the average in today’s labour
market, hundreds of thousands of young Canadians still face the challenge of
finding a job. In fact, as of January 2019, the youth
unemployment rate is 11.2 per cent, nearly double the national average. To
make matters worse, the global pandemic has caused many graduating students’
employment opportunities to slip away without any guarantee of returning
anytime soon. According to Statistics
Canada, the unemployment rate soared to 13 per cent and a total of more
than three million jobs were lost during the crisis. With greater competition and
decreased opportunities, what is a new grad to do?
One of the reasons that graduates are having a difficult time
looking for a job is because
they are lacking the skills that employers are looking for. How is that
possible? Canadians are some of the most educated people in the world, 56.7 per cent of
25 to 64 year-olds complete post-secondary education. However, there is
increasing feedback from employers that recent graduates are lacking the skills
they need. Let’s break it down. Although applicants need to have relevant
technical skills, human skills are needed to get one’s foot in the door. The Conference
Board of Canada groups employability skills, the skills needed to enter,
stay in, and progress in the world of work, into three categories:
- Fundamental skills – the skills needed as
a basis for further development
- Communication, managing information, using
numbers, thinking and solving problems
- Personal management skills – the personal
skills, attitudes, and behaviours that drive one’s potential for growth
- Demonstrating positive attitudes and behaviours,
being responsible, being adaptable, learning continuously, working safely
- Teamwork skills – the skills and
attributes needed to contribute productively
- Working with others, participating in projects
and tasks
These employability skills, or human skills, are relevant to
any field. Post-secondary institutions prioritize developing technical skills
relevant to specific industries. Sometimes, teaching and cultivating human
skills to their students can be neglected. Human skills can be the differentiating
factor between landing the job or remaining jobless. To increase the success of
their students, post-secondary institutions need to iterate and adapt their
programs to develop technical AND human skills. They need to make graduate
employment outcomes a top institutional priority by implementing enhanced
career readiness support and collaborate with employers to develop work-ready
skills in students. By building bridges between post-secondary institutions and
employers, we can learn from each other. Consequently, post-secondary
institutions will be able to better equip their students to be what employers
are looking for and employers will have access to the talent they seek. The
time is now to invest in students, Canada’s greatest resource and our future.
Non-profit organizations and academic institutions require support
The challenges that non-profit organizations (NPOs) face are
well known. They are often understaffed, under-resourced, and need support. Labour
and skill shortages in the non-profit industry are a reality and limited
financial means make it difficult to hire and retain skilled employees. Even
though NPOs are on the front lines tackling the biggest challenges that the
world faces, they are constantly forced to be nimble and innovative without
adequate resources to do so. This leaves less room for innovation and investing
in ways to make the organization be more effective and efficient. NPOs
suffer from the “innovation-aspiration” problem: Out of 145 non-profit
leaders, 80 per cent say that the sector needs to make changes in practice to
make greater societal gains, whereas only 40 per cent believe that they have
the capacity do that. Stretched budgets and teams contribute to inability to
innovate and diminished potential to make a positive impact.
Research is important to society; it is a critical tool for
successfully navigating our complex world. It propels humanity forward and is a
way for us to obtain the latest information to help solve the world’s
never-ending problems. Therefore, it is essential to continue investing in and
building capacity for this work. Despite
this, funding from the government has left researchers concerned about the
future and competitiveness.
Innovation processes vary widely among non-profits, and new
ideas can come from both internal and external sources. A 2016
BCG report revealed that many of the most promising ideas come from field
and external partners, such as universities. A common element shared between
NPOs that make breakthroughs in innovation is diverse teams. More specifically,
different minds, backgrounds, and skillsets give way for more perspectives. Also,
don’t forget, NPOs are employers too. Total
employment by charities and non-profits has climbed to 2.4 million in 2017, up
from 2.1 million in 2007. Non-profit
sector employees are a well-educated group, 84 per cent or more have completed
at least some post-secondary education.
Post-secondary students, NPO’s, and academic institutions all benefit from
work-study placements and experiential learning
It’s a match made in heaven. Okay, maybe not exactly, but
it’s pretty close. There is a symbiotic relationship between students, NPOs
through work-study placements, and academic institutions through experiential
learning. Work-study placements and experiential learning give students a
chance to gain on-the-job experience, determine career fit, refine learning
goals, develop specific competencies, and build a network of post-graduate
contacts. Findings by the Higher
Education Quality Council of Ontario supports this; students who undergo
work-study placements and/or experiential learning are more prepared to enter
the workforce with relevant, transferable, marketable skills, or also known as
human skills. They have explored their career options and have improved
prospects for post-graduate job opportunities. As well, students with
work-study experience are more likely to feel appropriately qualified for their
job and to have a job related to their long-term career goals and studies. No
doubt, work-study experiences and experiential learning are beneficial for
students; in fact, the statistics convey this. These
students have a lower rate of unemployment and are more likely to see higher
earnings.
What about for the NPOs and academic institutions? Remember that
point about diverse teams being key to innovation? Students can bring new ideas,
fresh perspectives, and enthusiasm to the workplace and research environment. Work-study
placements offer access to diversely talented and highly motivated students and
sometimes aid in vetting students before the hiring process begins, which in
turn reduces recruiting costs. Furthermore, they are an opportunity to evaluate
a potential long-term employee before committing. To add to that point,
employers, in this case NPOs, get to observe first-hand the work readiness of
future graduates. Under-resourced NPOs get an infusion of help that they may need
for managing short-term pressures or special projects. Developing and
maintaining research programs benefits students, faculty mentors, and
universities. Through research, or experiential learning opportunities,
students are enabled to develop independent critical thinking skills, and oral
and written communication skills. Faculty members can enhance learning
experiences for students while benefiting from a productive research agenda.
Universities also benefit from receiving increased visibility in the scientific
community through presentations and publications.
Particularly for NPOs, work-study placements involve having
meaningful relationships with post-secondary institutions and having access to ideas
based on emerging research. There are many benefits of structured collaboration
between NPOs and post-secondary institutions. These collaborations provide
opportunities for research and education around the non-profit setting and
enhance community capacity. With post-secondary institutions prioritizing
graduate employment outcomes, a partnership with NPOs can mean greater
employment opportunities for students. In turn, NPOs that need support can
receive the help that they need to innovate and be more efficient and
effective. An additional perk is that post-secondary institutions canlearn and
have a deeper understanding about NPOs’ activities, needs, and challenges and
pinpoint how their students’ competencies can grow when dealing with NPOs’
issues. Seems like a win-win situation.
University of Saskatchewan and Kwantlen Polytechnic University: Case
studies for successful work-study placements and experiential learning
University of Saskatchewan: A case study of successful work-study
placements in NPOs
As part of a Research
Impact Canada project, funded by the Conference Board of Canada and the Future Skills Centre, five USask graduate
students undertook work-study placements at NPOs in Saskatoon. The goals of
USask’s project were to:
- Understand key employment skills necessary for
NPOs that support equity-seeking groups
- Build onto the Future Skills Centre’s FUSION
project by informing development in graduate course work
- Increase research capacity and awareness for
local non-profits and community partners
USask’s project aligns well with the FUSION project’s
priorities. The FUSION project’s objective is to foster collaboration around
skills development and speed diffusion of successful innovations. Its focus is
to build on more inclusive forms of skills development and to create more
flexible learning formats to better facilitate skill acquisition to improve
employability. Similarly, USask’s project helped its students gain important
skills for employment through work-study placements in NPOs.
Teaching an NPO new tricks
Students take learnings from their work-study placements.
They can also impart valuable knowledge to NPOs and their clients. This was the
case for USask students, Chiamaka
and Constanza.
Chiamaka helped tackle experiences of hunger by promoting
food security through nutritional education at the Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre.
The goal of her placement was to provide families with access to food and equip
them with improved nutritional knowledge through increasing client engagement. She
brought to light that although the centre has an excellent nutrition program, it needed to be promoted more. She made
recommendations to promote the nutrition education workshops on the website, to
promote success stories from the nutrition program, and to create videos to
highlight the centre’s programs in order to increase client engagement and
raise funds. The Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre had the tools to
increase client engagement. Chiamaka’s perspective and guidance helped them
meet their goals.
At the Safe Drinking
Water Foundation, Constanza contributed to the goal of educating the
general public, including students, about drinking water quality issues and
solutions. Her role was to update the Foundation’s documents on teaching
outcomes so that they aligned with current school curricula in each province,
across all grade levels and subject areas. She leveraged her experience working
in K-12 programs as an instructor, her experience designing curricula, and knowledge
from her thesis project to help the Foundation educate their clients.
Bringing diversity to light
Not only can students contribute to diversity in a workplace
but they can also lead diversity initiatives. Workplace diversity is important because
it is essential in solving problems, it brings together voices and ideas from
different perspectives. Edgar
helped the YMCA achieve its vision of
becoming a diverse community where people are healthy and have a collective
sense of belonging. His work placement involved assessing the current level of
diversity among the organization’s employees. The results of his work informed
a long-term diversity strategy and heighted awareness of what diversity means
in the workplace. He also pointed opportunities to expand gender, sexual
orientation, and economic background diversity.
Innovation aspirations into reality
Often NPOs cannot innovate due to limited capacity and
resources. In the case of the Elizabeth
Fry Society and the Saskatchewan Elocution
and Debate Association, they had some help from Martyne
and Abukari
to progress their innovation aspirations.
Martyne completed her placement at the Elizabeth Fry Society
(EFS), an organization that works with women before, during, and after
incarceration to reduce reoccurrences of criminal activity and support women at
high-risk of such activity due to racism, violence, and poverty. EFS has to
collect personal information on clients to secure grant funding. Martyne’s job
was to research best practices and create a policy framework for EFS staff to
use in gathering information in a way that prioritizes client autonomy and
dignity. With Martyne’s efforts and expertise in ethics of data collection, EFS
now has data forms and processes in place which focus on their commitment to
inclusive, responsible, and responsive practice. Her work also opens up
opportunities to extend and share with similar NPOs working with vulnerable
people.
At the Saskatchewan Elocution and Debate Association (SEDA),
Abukari’s goal was to develop a consensus-style debate to train and equip
learners with new skills and knowledge on how to resolve complex real-life
problems – a debate style that honors diverse views, opinions, and
perspectives, and is capable of promoting Indigenous engagement. The outcome of
this work-study partnership provided SEDA with critical help that move this
initiative past the planning and discussion stage and ready for implementation
and field trial. Abukari helped bring SEDA’s vision to reality.
Kwantlen Polytech University: Modeling successful experiential learning
Through various research placements, KPU students helped make
it possible for faculty to solve big research problems.
Sue Fairburn, a researcher and product design instructor at
KPU’s Wilson School of Design, is an expert in the design of survival equipment
for extreme environments such as the Arctic. An outwear company, Mustang
survival, requested that she design a hypothermia blanket. Fairburn tasked a
small group of third-year product design students to create a second-generation
rewarming bag specifically for polar water conditions and provided experts that
could consult on physiological, product development, and user standpoints. The
result – the polar burrito – is a highly technical and carefully researched product
that could save lives. The students were able to take the design from research
to concept to working prototype in just seven weeks, a feat that Fairburn would
have not been able to achieve in such a short period of time.
Dr. Asma Sayed, an English instructor, leads several
projects including archiving South Asian artistic productions, and translating the
work of Canadian authors from South Asian language to English. With the help of
a student, Rahil Faruqi, she was able to locate archival recordings of
interviews and translate and transcribe them into English. With a dedicated
resource to help her accomplish this work, Dr. Sayed is able to have more time
and capacity to examine source material more closely and speak about social
justice issues through the lens of literary and cultural texts.
Dr. James Hoyland enlists the help of students in developing
a means for independent organic farmers to build their network of sensors in a
financially sustainable manner. Although sensors are not new, the technology is
expensive to install and out of reach for small-scale farmers. By researching
and field-testing the simplest and most affordable way to build a wireless
network of crop sensors, Hoyland empowers independent organic farmers with the
ability to micro-manage their limited resources and become more viable without
turning to less environmentally sustainable methods. With a fourth-year physics
of modern technology student, Hoyland has built sensor nodes that are ready to
test the field. Working with students allows for interaction of different
disciplines and interdisciplinary communication at the student-level which is
key to Hoyland’s research work and success.
(Student) mission accomplished
Upon reflection, all students said that through their
work-placement experience or experiential learning opportunities, they gained transferable,
human skills such as communication, interpersonal, problem solving, and collaboration
skills. They also said that they were able to apply their research skills to a
practical problem and they felt fulfillment in helping others achieve their
goals. This opportunity allowed the students see other options for jobs and learned
to appreciate the importance of education as a tool to make people aware of
issues.
In case it was missed…
These are the key takeaways:
- Post-secondary students are often struggling to find
employment opportunities. They are often lacking the skills that employers are
looking for: human skills. Human skills are the skills needed to enter, stay in
and progress in the workforce.
- Non-profit organizations face the challenge of
being under-resourced, under-staffed and as a result are unable to be
innovative.
- Although research is important, funding for it
is often lacking creating a need for greater resources and capacity to solve
the world’s problems
- Work-study placements and experiential learning are
opportunities for students to get on-the-job experience, a network of post-grad
contacts, human skills, and prospects for employment opportunities. In turn, non-profit
organizations gain access to diverse talent, evaluate potential long-term
employees, and help to manage short-term pressures or progress special projects.
Experiential learning opportunities in research create efficiencies and greater
capacity to solve problems within academic institutions. It is a beneficial
situation for all parties.
The above report was created in partnership between Research
Impact Canada, the University of Saskatchewan, and Kwantlen Polytechnic
University.
This work was funded by The Conference Board of Canada through the Government of Canada‘s Future Skills Centre. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Future Skills Centre, its funder, or its partners.
Future Skills Centre is a partnership of Ryerson University, The Conference Board of Canada, and Blueprint.