March 31, 1980 The Other Press fae by Phil Hurcomb for Canadian University Press When community college systems moved from provincial government drawing-boards to_ full operation in the mid 1960s and early 1970s they were billed as the long over due solution to the Canadian problem of developing secondary industries without an adequate skilled labour force. Through the 50s and 60s Canada had depended on skilled labour from Britain, Germany and Italy to build its houses and businesses, and build and operate the heavy machinery necessary in any industrial nation. High schools were incapable of providing the depth of training necessary for industry and our university system with its lofty academic ideals, provided no real career oriented programs beyond the fields of law, medicine and management and business skills. Although the need for institutions providing training in the health services, industrial trades, community education, and communication skills was immediately obvious, acceptance as a legitimate member of the post- secondary community was slow in coming for the Canadian college system until the recent boom in applications and _ job placement successes. Community colleges across the country are reporting impressively high placement rates’ for graduating students in their own field and many colleges are receiving four times as many applications for first year courses as they can accomodate in _ their classrooms. Peter Penner, the assistant deputy minister of education in Manitoba, recently reported that college graduates in that province have maintained a steady level of employment with most finding employment in their particular field. Most other provinces have reported equal placement figures. Non-university post- secondary school enrolment has_ risen approximately seven per cent in the last three years while university enrolments across the country have dropped off by approximately four per cent. An even’ more impressive endorsement of the concept of community aoe training is that the number of _ students ye transferring out of university courses into the . college system is on the rise. Several Ontario colleges have reported that more than nine per cent of students in their first year of college have had previous university experience and almost three per cent of students entering the college have’ already received a_ university degree. There are a number of fundamental differences between these two types of post-secondary education in Canada which have resulted in the swing to the college system. In a_ recently published article in the Journal of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges Dr. James Colvin, President of Fanshawe that there are an increasing number of people from the workforce, from high school and from university attending community college today.” The consistently heavy emphasis on practical, job- oriented programs. in college curricula is undoubtedly the prime reason for the surge in student interest in a college education, but many college administrators give almost equal credit to the official presence of community business, industry and labour representatives on the committees that decide on the nature and scope of the courses to be adopted. Although the actual decision-making structures at colleges differ from province to _ province, Community college capable goes on and on. The major question concerning the provincial community college systems is can they live up to the very high expectations of their creators in the early and middle 1960s: expansion of facilities to every major community in Canada, fully adequate training to ensure the development of an indigenous skilled labour force and to achieve “parity of esteem” with Canada’s university system? 4 The possible expansion of college facilities depends largely on the levels of provincial government funding that they receive. In the past, funding increases for both the university and college systems have fallen well short of the rate of ) por ON Bt 2h i Community colleges De are not tor the sie s gat Oxtrind . College in London, Ontario, _ points out that the career and community orientation of the community colleges is at the root of the difference. “Universities have tended to be producers’ cooperatives while the colleges have from the outset been consumers’ cooperatives,” says Colvin. “The universities have been more prescriptive than responsive to the community; while the colleges have been the reverse. The colleges pay heed, not to a senate, but to local advisory committees meeting in church basements, business offices, school rooms or in someone's parlour.” This difference . in structure has played an important role in, the ‘development of the community college as an extention of the employment needs of the community and has resulted in an emphasis on a practical, job oriented education. Dr. Laurent Isabelle, president of Algonquin college in Ottawa, says there can be no question that a community college education is a very practical education. “Their (community ' colleges) objectives are career oriented programs whose content are roughly defined as 70 per cent vocational and 30 per cent general education,” according to Isabelle. “It is because of this emphasis ‘the serving both industry and business and the individual student by reflecting the needs of the local economy through its programs is the bottom line philosophy of all of Canada’s community colleges. Through participation in course advisory committees these community representatives can bring shortfalls in a given skilled labour area to the attention of a provincial government through the college in their community. For instance, in Ottawa the local electronics industry was instrumental in development of electronics courses at Algonquin college. They ‘brought the need for skilled technicians in this area to the attention of the college | board of governors, and after the courses were set up, industry representative were made part of the course advisory committee to ensure that the courses would graduate students whose _ training was applicable to the local industry. This constant contact with the community has resulted in. the establishment of varied college curricula across’ the country, supplying trained students in the essential industrial trades such as tool and die making and = machine operation, as well as specialized training from less traditional courses for would be jockeys, chefs, cabinet makers; the list & Ts em, inflation and this has been a major road block preventing the development of new programs in_ industrial skills. Ontario, for example, already has almost one hundred community college campuses in operation, but the demand for places on these campuses indicates that there is still plenty of room for expansion if the system receives adequate government assistance. ’ Provincial governments and industry itself will also play a large role in our future ability to develop a _completely indigenous skilled work force. According to Joe Hanafin of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers, the system that enables the community colleges to meet the needs of _ their immediate communities is hampering the ability of the colleges to deal with the ‘overall need for skilled labourers across’ the country. “The federal and provincial governments are trying to solve the job training crisis on an ad hoc basis rather than developing any comprehensive program,” says. Hanafin. “We still do not have a real commitment to a domestic trade force in Canada.” Hanafin points out that we are ‘still importing skilled workers from Europe and more recently from the Third World because we are . has gained in the minds of — always a step behind the real industrial needs of the country because of lack of planning. Hanafin also asserts that a community’ college education in an_ industrial skill will not make a student eligible for a high paying job unless they receive adequate apprenticeship training on the job. Hanafin says this — essential apprenticeship training is not always what it should be. “A lot of employers just want someone to work for them for peanuts. They might take someone with community college training as a machinist and bury them on one machine during their apprenticeship so they will never become real jodrneyman machin- ists,’ says the union spokesperson. “Before we will ever have a large skilled Icbour force the employers will have to give prog -r apprenticeships after community college training.” Industries’ major complaint about the present calibre of community college graduates is that they often lack the on-the- job perspective of their field that should be an important aspect of their education. Graduates of community colleges may understand their skills, but in the working world it is equally important that they be able to do their job quickly and effeciently, not just correctly. As far as the general goal of achieving ‘‘parity of esteem” with the universities, there can be no doubt that the public perception of a community college education has changed drastically over the past decade and that the community college route will be even more attractive in the future as it becomes more difficult to get a job with a general university degree. ; It is difficult to define just ow much credibility the community college system the administrators of our education system, from the high school guidance counsellor to the university president, but “parity of esteem” or not, Canada’s burgeoning community college system, with an approximate national enrolment of 250,000 this academic year, at least earned the envy of many a university registrar across the country, and who is to say that this is not an equally important gauge of credibility.