At Home: Skills Gap Study Shelved for Lack of Cash
The government of Canada spent 4.6 million on a survey of 25,000 employers to bring some hard numbers to the extent of the skills gap in Canada, but the report has not been able to be made public because of lack of funding. Statistics Canada conducted the survey over the first three months of 2012, but was not given the funding to analyze the results. Over the past two years, the Conservative government has cut funding to Statistics Canada by over 29.3 million dollars, forcing staffing to be cut by almost 20%. Alison Hale, Statistics Canada’s director of labour statistics says they are working on the analysis as time allows, but are more than willing to gear up efforts if someone can provide them the funding to do so.
Around the Globe: Denmark Seeks More International Students
Reported recently in The PIE News, Denmark has put forward an action plan to help recruit non-EU students to their schools and job market. The new polity will target non-European students who are subject to tuition fees (students from the EU are exempted from having to pay tuition already) and who are higher calibre students. With scholarship funding of over 4.5 million dollars US being proposed by the government, and more being sought from businesses and industry that will benefit from having access to these skilled workers. The plan states these changes are necessary because “We are losing thousands of skilled young people who have spent a number of years in Denmark, and who could be contributing to Danish society.”
