Canada’s economy is falling behind. We see an opportunity for post-secondary education to become a strategic lever for economic transformation. Figuring out how to make that happen has been the focus of our work this year in partnership with RBC Thought Leadership and Higher Education Strategy Associates, including our cross-country consultation and a recent cross-sector executive summit.
Here’s what we’ve figured out so far: To grow our economy, we need to design for scale and make it structurally possible for companies and post-secondary institutions to move faster, with more flexibility, autonomy, and fewer legacy constraints. Otherwise, we’re asking our workforce, innovation systems, and institutions to operate at 2030 speeds on 1990s infrastructure. It won’t work.
We have a short window to make the shift. Without bold, coordinated action across government, industry, and post-secondary education, we risk becoming economically irrelevant.
It’s time to build the systems that can deliver
As astronaut Chris Hadfield reminded us at our summit, a rocket launches somewhere in the world every 29 hours. That’s the clock the rest of the world is on. It needs to be ours too.
Authors: Valerie Walker and Matthew McKean
Valerie Walker is the CEO of Business + Higher Education Roundtable (BHER), a national nonprofit that connects business and post-secondary leaders. Matthew McKean is the Chief R&D Officer of BHER.