Taking stock of lifelong learning in Canada

Representatives of Canadian Council on Learning are meeting with Members of Parliament and Senators today to discuss the state of lifelong learning in Canada.

While Canada is doing well in many areas associated with lifelong learning, there is plenty of room for improvement. For the post-secondary sector specifically, the Council recommends the following:

• A national post-secondary strategy should possess three essential characteristics: clearly stated objectives, both general and for specific periods of time; measures to assess achievement of objectives; and a systematic goal of cohesion and coherence among all the facets—as is the case in the European Union (EU) and other developed countries.
• Emulate the EU in converging all forms of education and training across jurisdictions, thereby promoting mobility and quality. This implies harmonisation across jurisdictions—not standardisation.
• Create systems of accountability through agreement on national indicators for success in PSE, learning from EU, Australia and other political entities.
• Create a pan-Canadian PSE data and information strategy which acts as the basis for indicator development and policy decisions.
• Establish goals and measurable objectives for Canadian PSE for both the short and the long term.
• Create and maintain a national forum on PSE, including both governments and NGOs, that would: establish national goals, indicators, and data and would agree on mechanisms to monitor and report annually to Canadians on progress with respect to agreed goals.
• Construct a pan-Canadian framework for quality assurance.
• Establish a Canadian qualifications framework.

All of the materials to be distributed to Parliamentarians today are available here on the Canadian Council on Learning website.

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