OSPE - COVID-19 Economic Recovery Recommendations - Federal Government - 7

3. Invest in talent development, knowledge training, and supports for engineers in Ontario.
Ontario boasts a diversified economy with a strong entrepreneurial base and impressive innovation capacity. The province continues to
lead the country in key sectors of the economy including manufacturing and mining. Ontario generates on average 37% of Canada's GDP
and is home to almost 50% of employees in knowledge industries. While COVID-19 put significant strain on the economy, forcing millions
of people out of work, there is an opportunity to rebalance demand and supply for labour, and ensure that Canada is retaining its top
talent.
Prior to COVID-19, some of Ontario's industries, such as infrastructure and transportation were already facing a talent-gap in their engineering departments. Engineering jobs were being given to international firms because Ontario did not have the right talent to get the
job done. This is deeply concerning to the economic recovery of the province and the country as a whole, as the success of the economy
depends on the ability to match talent with job vacancies and to ensure that this talent can adapt to market demands. This concern has
become magnified by immediate demands for more technologically equipped engineers due to changes caused by the current crisis.
The federal government should work with the Ontario Government, to create incentives that support a strong culture of lifelong learning
across Ontario, where employers and employees are provided with the tools and resources to upskill and retrain local talent. This year,
OSPE launched the Ontario Engineering Academy (OEA) to up-skill/re-skill engineering graduates exclusively to meet industry needs in
Ontario. Your support of this initiative is critical for engineering graduates to adequately support Ontario's economic recovery and by extension the economic growth of the country. There is an opportunity for the government to incentivize engineering companies to invest in
the professional development of their employees, to ensure that they are equipped with the knowledge and know-how to design and execute based on new realities. Investing in engineering talent allows the economy to shift towards more innovative and efficient processes
and systems, which in turn creates jobs for other professionals, stimulating job creation and growth.

4. Support engineering students and recent engineering graduates.
COVID-19 has negatively impacted engineering students and new engineering graduates in numerous ways. Specifically, students and
engineering graduates are having difficulty accessing co-op/work integrated learning (WIL) opportunities. Co-op placements provide
practical training experience that is needed as part of the work experience requirement for licensing and to obtain the necessary applied
skills to succeed in the workplace.
Moreover, the decrease in access to co-op placements/WIL opportunities has a significant impact on engineering students, who use
these as a source to finance their studies. As outlined in OSPE's 2019 report Engineering Students and Graduates: Perspectives on Tuition, Job Prospects, and Co-op/internships, tuition for engineering students in Ontario is higher than the national average and considerably higher than some other undergraduate degree programs. While survey results indicated that this did not dissuade students from
pursuing an engineering degree, most respondents expressed significant concern regarding their ability to pay off student loans or debt,
needed to finance these higher tuition fees and educational expenses.
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OSPE - COVID-19 Economic Recovery Recommendations - Federal Government

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