School’s out for summer!
Perhaps not Alice Cooper’s famous last words, but as another school year wraps up this month across Canadian campuses, the many challenges facing students today and ways in which these (and future) graduates will need to adapt to the evolving job market are hitting the airwaves. While educators and program directors hope to break down the walls between university and society, students too are being challenged to seize opportunities that give them an edge when moving from school to work. A brief collection of such tales from this week includes:
- Video: Incoming UBC president Dr. Arvind Gupta speaks with Peter Manbridge on challenges facing today's students (CBC The National)
- Video: Generation squeezed: Some young Canadians are finding it tough to get a job, buy a home or start a family (CBC The National)
- New ways to bridge gap from school to work (Maclean’s)
- Government of Canada Investments in College and Business Partnerships Create Jobs, Prosperity for Canadians (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada)
On a lighter note, the end of the school year also means the start of “conference season”. We’re now only a month away from the start of Congress 2014. With over 6,000 registered attendees, Congress at Brock University is well on its way to bringing over 8,000 scholars to St Catharines in May. It’s only fitting that this year’s programming is as diversified as its participants. Be sure to follow the Congress Blog that is abuzz with a record number of posts authored by the many events’ organizers, with topics ranging from shining the spotlight on Brock University and the Niagara Region to film night hosted by the National Film Board of Canada to the Indigenous presence at Congress.
In other news, stories from the field of the social sciences and humanities worth noting this week were Natalie Samson’s concerns in University Affairs about the end of Chad Gaffield’s tenure as president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and a piece by Martin Paul Eve from The Guardian about the reach of humanities and social sciences research.