The Changing Relationship Between Education and Work Life

In this workshop, the conference missed a major point by not acknowledging, and therefore not addressing, the impact that technology is having on the workplace. There was little discussion of the projections that by 1990, 1-1½ million jobs will disappear in the clerical and service sectors alone, with large numbers lost in the manufacturing sector due to automation. The role and responsibility of the post secondary system for retraining displaced workers throughout the next decade was only glanced at. Discussions demonstrated little understanding of the magnitude and scope of the problem being created by technology. There was some discussion of the problem presented for adults by the lack of an educational continuum between colleges and universities. Throughout the discussions on Education and Work, there was tension between those who believe in education for jobs, education for its own sake and education for economic development.

Patterns of Governance

One of the strongest undercurrents and sub-themes at the conference was how to make the University system more accountable for their expenditure of public dollars while maintaining the traditional, autonomous role of the university. The issue was not resolved, but permeated discussions in all of the designated theme areas. It arose, particularly in relation to the theme of Patterns of Governance.

There was general recognition in these discussions, that the post-secondary system has a major public relations and public image problem. Strong suggestions were made that one of the roles of a Minister of Education should be that of explaining and representing the post-secondary system to the public.

Financing

The Financing workshop focused on the fact that growth in the post-secondary system is over and that constraints must be lived with. In discussions of how to effectively redeploy resources, the priorities for participants were clearly the preservation or enhancement of quality, variety and accessibility of education. The need to set clear goals for accessibility was identified in order to redesign student programs and to include financial assistance to part-time students.

In her closing remarks, Dr. Bette Stephenson, present chair of the Council of Ministers of Education, made the following observations. She stated that efforts of the past 20 years have been successful in making the post-secondary system accessible to larger numbers of people. However, those efforts have not made for equality of access to all socio-economic groups nor to women, native peoples, part-time students, inhabitants of isolated communities and minority language groups. She stated that the Council of Ministers is committed to allowing full accessibility to all who wish to participate. She recognized that with constraints, accessibility goals would be difficult to achieve, but still possible.

With regard to the question of university autonomy, Dr. Stephenson acknowledged the need for autonomy, but that the university must now accept an additional role: that of responsibility to society. Governments should set general objectives for universities based on availability of financing but universities should maintain control of expenditures. The quality or programs needs to be examined; quality should not be equated with amounts of money spent nor with growth.

She emphasized that economic development is clearly the primary goal of governments during the 1980's. Post-secondary institutions must examine and clarify the roles they have to play in this development.

She urged individuals and organizations to send their concerns and thoughts on these issues in writing to their provincial Education Minister or to the Council of Ministers of Education. Many important questions and issues were raised about the post-secondary system at the conference, but few answers or solutions were found. Solutions will need to be developed in the very near future.

Susan McCrae Vander Voet is the National Coordinator of CCLOW. She has developed a wide variety of social service and educational programs for women over the past fifteen years.