Thomas Carey is co-Principal Catalyst for WINCan and Executive-in-Residence in the British Columbia Association of Institutes and Universities and the Monash University Faculty of Arts .
The Ministry of Colleges and Universities in Ontario released last week its Policy Framework for a Major Capacity Expansion in the province’s college and university sectors. While we knew this was coming at some point, it is a pleasant surprise to see them get this out the door while expending so much effort on dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. (But the crisis is not ignored in the Policy Framework, which notes that in the short term “Given the current fiscal situation, proponents are encouraged to bring forward proposals that do not require provincial capital or operating funding in the near term” !)
The City of Brampton – Ontario’s 4th largest municipality – was quick to respond, since they have been working for some time on a proposal for a new university: the city is by far the largest in the province without its own university, although several universities provide limited offerings via satellite classes within the city. Their press release highlights key themes identified in planning for the proposed university as potential Signature elements across degree programs – Innovation, Sustainability, and Digital Transformation – to prepare graduates with the Employagility needed to thrive in the emerging Future of Work.
The new university is intended to support the regional and municipal economic development plans, as a ‘university for Brampton’ not just a ‘university in Brampton’. The website for the proposed new university now contains three Green Papers: Governance Model, Academic Strategy and Economic Strategy. The Academic Strategy Green Paper section on the key themes identified above as potential strategic Signatures includes the following note about Workplace Innovation:
Workplace Innovation is a key element in responding to our economic, social and environmental challenges, and an area where Canada is known to lag behind other nations. While recent efforts within Ontario higher education have focused on capabilities for entrepreneurship, there is also growing recognition that we need a more innovation-capable workforce across organizational levels and roles (and in all workplace sectors).
Pioneering work in Europe has shown that ‘Human-Centred Workplace Innovation’ can be engaged to improve organizational performance – in all sectors – while at the same time leading to improvements in the quality of work life. There are promising initial efforts underway to develop this Workplace Innovation capability in higher education, using innovations in the teaching and learning environment for active learning.
The Green Paper sections on Digital Transformation and Sustainability also touch on aspects of Workplace Innovation, explicitly and implicitly. For example,
“When digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. But when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.”
(a quote from George Westerman of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy). And the Green Paper also notes that for all three potential Signatures there are “leading-edge practices in each area where in-course learning activities could prepare students in all programs to add value in applied workplace projects.”
We’re pleased that the Workplace Innovation Network for Canada was able to contribute its expertise to these developments, through my role an advisor for the Green Paper on Academic Strategy. We will be trying to involve various Brampton partners in our ongoing Ontario work to further nurture their interest.