This year, we launched BHER’s 2025–2028 strategic roadmap, a new Thought Leadership initiative, and began delivering on a renewed three-year WIL mandate, funded by the Government of Canada — all focused on one goal: turning stronger cross-sectoral convening and partnerships into measurable gains for Canada’s economy and talent pipelines.
BHER’s achievements this year were driven by the energy and insight of our members — industry and post-secondary leaders who co-designed projects, opened doors, and helped shape the national conversation on skills, innovation, and productivity.
1. Convening with Purpose
Our 2025 BHER Executive Summit brought together 150 leaders from more than 90 organizations to tackle The Messy Middle: How Business + Higher Education Are Getting Hard Things Done in Canada. We captured key insights in a takeaways report to help leaders move from talk to action. For senior leaders, this work is surfacing concrete partnership models that can be replicated across regions and sectors.
Over the summer, we partnered with RBC Thought Leadership and Higher Education Strategy Associates on a national roundtable series in seven cities and online, asking: What must Canada’s education and skills systems look like to ensure a thriving economy by 2035? An interim readout is shaping our next phase of work.
At our September members’ meeting with RBC, we hosted working sessions on Canada’s “nation-building” priorities—AI and emerging tech, space and defence, and major energy projects—with nationally recognized leaders, including The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. BHER contributed to the RBC Thought Leadership report that distills the ideas and insights from those discussions.
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2. Strengthening Canada’s Skills & Talent Ecosystems
BHER received a three-year, $9.4M funding renewal from the Government of Canada through Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). This will help expand work-integrated learning (WIL) in high-impact sectors and invest in the infrastructure for sustainable WIL ecosystems.
To date, we have:
- Created more than 70,000 WIL opportunities across Canada — building direct pathways from education to employment
- Brought over one-third of participating employers into WIL for the first time — expanding the pool of engaged industry partners
- Exceeded our previous multi-year WIL target by over 50% — demonstrating demand and scalability
In October, BHER CEO Val Walker appeared before the House of Commons HUMA Committee, emphasizing flexible programs and large-scale partnerships to create jobs for young people and improve productivity.
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3. Research & Thought Leadership
We launched BHER’s Thought Leadership initiative to give decision-makers faster access to our best thinking on skills, talent, productivity, and innovation, and began building a “coalition of the willing” across business, postsecondary, and government as part of our higher ed reform work, focused on changes that can be implemented in the next 12–24 months.
We expanded our impact through op-eds, media, and multi-phase research partnerships with organizations like Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO), Employment and Social Development Canada’s Skills for Success program, and Accessibility Standards Canada —advancing work on employer needs, AI skills, school-to-work transitions for youth with disabilities, and more accessible workplaces.
As 2025 wraps up, the BHER team is focused on turning this momentum into even greater impact in 2026—with new opportunities for members to shape policy, partnerships, and our 2026 BHER Executive Summit.
We’re grateful to our members for their partnership this year: their ideas, expertise, and willingness to experiment made 2025 one of BHER’s most ambitious years yet.
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BHER's Annual Staff Day - A look back at our staff day — a chance to step away from the day-to-day, connect as a team, and reflect on the work we’re building together.