Canada in need of digital literacy, skills strategies, groups tell government

OTTAWA--Faced with increasing demand for highly skilled workers, groups are telling the federal government that the country needs educational tools and a national digital literacy and skills strategy to head off a generational gap and a lack of skilled information and communications technology (ICT) workers. In a submission to the federal government as part of its consultation on the digital economy, the Media Awareness Network (MNet), a non-profit organization that promotes digital and media literacy, said Canada has fallen behind countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, which have made digital literacy a cornerstone of their digital economy strategies. The consultation, which called for comments on various digital issues, closes at midnight Tuesday. Comments are being posted on the consultation website as the deadline approaches. Many technology, telecom and cultural groups wrote in their position papers that Canada is suffering from its ability to attract, train and retain talent. MNet recommends that the government create a digital literacy taskforce, made up of players from all levels of government, as well businesses and communities, to develop a national digital literacy strategy. The group said the move should be followed by a stakeholder conference and the establishment of a “digital media knowledge transfer network” for educators and companies to share information on education efforts and job training initiatives. According to numbers from the Canadian Coalition for Tomorrow’s ICT Skills (CCICT), Canadian employers will be looking to fill 65,000 business technology management jobs by 2015. Claude Lemay, vice-president of the Quebec region for the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), told The Wire Report that the ICT sector is looking to fill 100,000 positions in the next two-to-three years. Terry Power, president of Randstad Group Canada, Canada’s largest provider of ICT resources to industry, said in an interview his company has also noticed a lack of skilled ICT workers to meet industry demand. “We are seeing significant demand … Even in 2009 unemployment in the ICT sector was running at roughly four per cent,” he said. “Definitely, we are seeing shortages out there. We are seeing companies have a tough time finding specialized talent.” He said companies must be prepared to compete to attract skilled workers, and adjust their hiring mechanisms accordingly. Experts say Canada is unprepared to fill the positions and that the problem starts with a lack of basic digital skills. “We’re probably in the worst shape in terms of basic digital literacy as a country, because we teach it in the schools, but we’re doing a very inadequate job of it,” said David Ticoll, the CCICT’s executive director. “Simple things like how do you set up tabs and how do you use the bullet function. I get people who are university graduates and don’t know how to do that. Even at the most mechanical level, people don’t have the basic skills.” But Canada cannot simply focus on basic and business-level digital skills. The country will need highly skilled digital workers to fuel its ICT and information technology (IT) sectors. “We have this big gap . It’s probably due to demographics, retiring people and continued growth in the IT labour market,” Ticoll said. The CCICT is recommending that the government partner with the private sector to create and sustain a “skills data mart.” The data mart would provide up-to-date information on jobs that need to be filled, in what sectors, and in which regions. The portal would make it easier for students to orient their career paths towards areas in need. ITAC noted in its submission that Canada ranks 20th among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in producing science and engineering graduates. The organization recommends that Canada move into the top five by 2016. The CCICT also recommends collaboration between federal and provincial governments to increase investment in education and expand the number of seats in next-generation ICT-related post-secondary programs by at least 20 per cent by 2017. The organization is also seeking to double female enrollments in the programs by the same date. Women currently make up about a quarter of Canada’s ICT workforce. MNet said ICT education should be taught at all levels, starting with kindergarten. It was a suggestion echoed in a submission from the York University and Ryerson University joint graduate program in communication and culture. “In order to ensure that, in the long run, citizens and labour market entrants possess digital skills, education must begin earlier than in secondary school at the primary school level. The development of ICT skills should be embedded within school curriculum, taught by teachers who are themselves well versed in current digital technologies,” the submission said. Jeremy Shtern, a postdoctoral fellow at Ryerson who participated in the working group’s submission, said students are too often teaching themselves about social networking, tools and web design. He said new media content creation skills are greatly needed. “The overall recommendation that we would make is we need to start thinking of content creation as a digital skill, and as a skill that is necessary for the digital economy,” he said. Bell Canada noted in its submission to the consultation that it supports education to promote the ICT sector. Bell said Canadian industry is facing a shortage of skilled IT workers, and suggested recruiting international students into technical university programs and accrediting skilled, internationally educated workers to fill the gaps. kfournier@thewirereport.ca

Canada in need of digital literacy, skills strategies, groups tell government

Broadcast | July 13, 2010

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