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Rethinking who Universities Educate Well before the COVID-19 pandemic upturned our economy, and social distancing forced us to move interactions to a virtual environment, society was experiencing the opportunities and challenges that technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, nanotechnology, robotics and 3-D printing present. We are fortunate to live, work and learn in Waterloo Region, a community poised to adapt and lead in a world where the changing nature of work and learning will be one of the defining characteristics of the century. What are the trends we are seeing related to the nature of work? According to a recent report from the World Economic Forum, 54 per cent of employees will need new skills by 2022 and 30 per cent of the skills that employees use today, they did not have a year ago. Think about the tools many employees and students have added to their toolbox in the last 12 months alone: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and a plethora of other project and learning management software to name a few. Indeed, the pandemic has added urgency to the need for people to learn new skills and upgrade existing skills as schools, post-secondary institutions and entire industries have significantly shifted the way they work and do business — and not just for the short term. In a post-pandemic world, universities, as hubs of knowledge creation and dissemination, are in a unique position to meet the growing demand for advanced education. The pandemic, and the spotlight on issues of racism and racial inequity in 2020, have provided us an opportunity for a reset. We now have the opportunity to reimagine how we address the pressing challenges of our time – climate change, poverty, and equity, to name a few—as they intersect with the future of work and learning. The university sector has an important role to play in creating this new world as we prepare citizens who think deeply about complex issues, problem solve, and use ethics and theoretical lenses when approaching their work. By instilling this knowledge and skill in people, universities are supporting resilience in the face of rapid technological and social change. I am certain that the fundamentals of a university education will remain the same, and arguably, become more important, as we navigate the rise of artificial intelligence, enhanced robotics and smart cities. We will need computer programmers who consider equity and accessibility, business leaders who embrace social and environmental concerns as
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much as they do profits, and citizens who are engaged and aware of their obligations, rights and freedoms. Typically, university graduates have acquired these ‘soft’ or ‘enduring’ skills through four-year undergraduate degrees, and then further develop them through graduate work. This kind of education has historically happened in a very linear fashion. However, as workers are displaced by technology and people require new skills for mid-career shifts, universities need to reconsider if this pattern of educational attainment truly fits the needs of modern learners. As universities broaden their reach and become accessible to more people from different backgrounds, they need to create opportunities for learners to access education in ways that fit with their personal and professional lives. In response to these evolving learning needs, Wilfrid Laurier University is focusing on credential innovation as part of our institution’s five-year (2019-2024) strategic plan. Already, Laurier has launched a number of smaller credential offerings for mid-career workers, which leverage our faculty expertise and offer an opportunity to develop the enduring skills typically acquired at universities. The Digital Literacy and Emerging Technologies certificate offers introductory courses in bitcoin and blockchain, cybercrime, and biometrics, to name a few. The program is aimed at professionals looking to fill knowledge gaps in technology shifts. As another example, Laurier has recently launched a series of courses called the Gladue Principles: Indigenous Peoples and the Canadian Criminal Justice System, which are targeted at people who work in the legal, social and public safety sectors to provide historical context on Indigenous law and the inter-generational impact of colonization. In an exciting initiative, Laurier and Communitech have launched, in collaboration with local partners, a program that develops in-demand skills in mid-career workers in our region. Right now, 40 local employees are participating in the program, first engaging in workshops in sales and communications offered through Communitech Academy, followed by intensive immersion learning, taught by Laurier faculty, in which a semester-long for-credit course has been condensed into six weeks. As part of pandemic recovery and to meet the accelerating need for education and skills development, post-secondary institutions have an opportunity to work with the business community to identify knowledge gaps and collaboratively
