The four postsecondary institutions in the Ottawa region, Algonquin College, Carleton University, La Cité Collégiale and the University of Ottawa, are working together under the umbrella of Education City. Emanating from pilot work supported in the second round of institutional Strategic Mandates Agreements, the institutions agreed to collaborate together in the pursuit to develop unique learner-driven work-integrated learning credentialed programs. Together and working with industry, business, civil society and all levels of government, we have designed flexible certificate-diploma-degree programmes to meet the highly skilled workforce needs of business and industry, civil society organizations and governments (local, provincial and national) in Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley.
These innovative programmes combine the unique strengths of the institutions, are offered in French and English, address skills demanded of today’s and tomorrow’s workforce through face-to-face and online courses. The courses and career advising capacity provide education, skills development and re-training programs for graduates seeking to upgrade or renew their skills or for upskilling for individuals seeking to return to the workforce.
The learning outcomes of these programs are closely aligned with employability and entrepreneurial skills identified by the finance sector, tech sector, SMEs, government and non-governmental organizations.
This program is innovative in several ways: the strong collaboration between four postsecondary institutions, building on strengths within and among the institutions and offering programming in French and English; the integration of workplace learning with online courses and activities that can be readily adjusted to meet employers’ needs; the development of programmes that can be used as part of diploma-degree training and also offered to people in the current workforce seeking to upgrade/renew or retrain their employability and entrepreneurial skills.
During the third iteration of the Strategic Mandate Agreement with government, Education City will increase enrolment into the programmes, maintain high rates of retention and graduation, and ensure low rates of student debt. The programmes will work collaboratively with government and industry sponsors to develop performance metrics for this educational innovation that can be used not only to evaluate the effectiveness of the programmes but also as a model to scale-up similar models for collaboration in other jurisdictions.
Through Education City, the participating institutions will continue to seek ways to expand research collaboration with business and industry in Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley and continue to explore ways to collaborate and share common resources and practices to improve overall institutional efficiency.