Built for yesterday? Canada’s from-school-to-work systems need to adapt

Remember BlackBerry? Canada’s smartphone pioneer once dominated business communications. Then everything changed. Apple and Google created platforms designed to evolve as technology and users’ needs changed. Canada’s post-secondary education and vocational training systems face a similar risk. Canada spends more than $66 billion annually on universities and colleges. Yet despite having one of the world’s most educated populations, Canada’s productivity remains weak in comparison to others in the G7. Economists traditionally measure productivity by examining figures related to economic output or the total value of all goods and services produced per hour worked. Productivity supports higher wages, economic growth and higher living standards when it’s buttressed with related policy. It depends on investment, a competitive business environment and, critically, people’s knowledge, skills and capabilities — our human capital. As our research argues, the challenge isn’t simply producing more graduates or delivering more courses and “better” training. It’s about how as a society we can ensure that this learning creates lasting value as work and society change. Learning has to be concerned with creating lasting value as work and society changes. (Unsplash) Preparation needed for lifetime of change Machines wear out. Software becomes obsolete. Human capabilities also depreciate — but unevenly. Some technical expertise becomes quickly outdated, while reasoning, judgment and the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn retain their value over a lifetime. Yet recent post-secondary education policy and employment systems are increasingly prioritizing immediate performance. Ontario’s performance-based funding framework, introduced in 2020, includes graduate employment and earnings among its measures. Alberta announced a similar approach in 2020. Neither framework systematically measures how well graduates adapt throughout their careers, nor do their performance indicators capture the full range of capabilities students develop. Employers face a similar challenge. Statistics Canada reports that only 29.7 per cent of workers participated in structured job-related training in 2024. An OECD comparison shows Canada exceeds the OECD average in adult learning participation. Yet across participating countries, 42 per cent of non-formal job-related learning activities last a day or less. Participation alone tells us little about whether learning develops lasting adaptability. Governments prioritize short-term outcomes and employers demand immediate productivity while workers face accelerating change. Yet, current performance-based funding and employment systems continue to undervalue the foundational capabilities that enable lifelong adaptability. The answer lies in recognizing that preparing someone for their first job isn’t the same as preparing them for a lifetime of change. Both matter, but our incentives do not treat them equally. From credentials to capabilities Canada already recognizes transferable capabilities. The federal Skills for Success framework includes adaptability, problem-solving and collaboration. Our new report, “Evergreen by Design: A Learning Ecosystem for a Changing World,” builds on this foundation by distinguishing interconnected dimensions: Domain knowledge: Understanding a field’s concepts, rules and practices. Domain skills: Performing specialized tasks using current tools and techniques. Evergreen knowledge: Durable foundations, including evidence, ethics and how institutions work. Evergreen skills: Applying those foundations through critical thinking, judgement, communication and adaptation. All four are essential. Together, they enable people to perform effectively today while building the capacity to adapt tomorrow. The Evergreen Model names domain knowledge and skills, and evergreen knowledge and skills. (The Productivity Project), CC BY Imagine a health ministry adviser evaluating whether AI could reduce surgical wait times. Using AI? Domain skill. Understanding health-care legislation? Domain knowledge. Understanding evidence, ethics and institutional behaviour? Evergreen knowledge. Weighing competing claims and defending a recommendation? Evergreen skills. Now introduce conflicting evidence or a new privacy ruling. Can the adviser revise the recommendation and explain why? That demonstrates adaptability, not simply current competence. Unlocking the value of learning We want to unlock the full intellectual, societal and economic value of what higher education already delivers. Both of us come from backgrounds in the arts and social sciences. We understand that post-secondary education’s value extends far beyond employment and what can be measured by the traditional economic metric of productivity, such as civic engagement. History, philosophy, literature and pure sciences foster this, as well as intellectual curiosity, cultural understanding and scientific discovery. These are not secondary benefits to be sacrificed for job readiness. A humanities student evaluating conflicting sources or testing ethical arguments develops evergreen capabilities. (Andrej Lisakov/Unsplash) Our point is that these disciplines develop capabilities whose value too often remains invisible beyond the classroom. A humanities student evaluating conflicting sources, testing ethical arguments or revising original work develops evergreen capabilities. These same capabilities contribute to better public policy, stronger communities and more thoughtful organizational decisions. The question is whether students can demonstrate and apply them in those settings. Research from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, involving more than 7,500 students across 20 institutions, highlights the need to assess these capabilities systematically. A separate Canadian study identified a substantial gap between students’ and employers’ perceptions of skill development. Avoiding BlackBerry’s fate Our earlier report, “Path to Open Learning_,” argues for replacing rigid educational pathways with a connected lifelong learning ecosystem. People need seamless on-ramps and off-ramps between education, employment and community learning. Someone returning to university or college after a decade of employment shouldn’t have to start over. Nor should capabilities developed through community service, workplace experience or independent learning become invisible when someone changes careers. The on- and off-ramps between education and employment must connect, allowing people to build on recognized capabilities. Four groups can begin making that shift: Educators should map programs against all four Evergreen dimensions and introduce adaptation tasks that require students to revise their work as circumstances change, while preserving each discipline’s intellectual and civic purposes. Governments should measure educational value beyond first jobs and salaries, tracking longer-term career progression and supporting portable recognition of capabilities acquired through formal, workplace and community learning. Publish the results in a real-time public dashboard to support evidence-based decisions. Employers should assess demonstrated capabilities rather than relying primarily on credentials and invest in mentoring, structured development and pathways that let employees return to learning throughout their careers. Students and job seekers should build portfolios that demonstrate what they know, what they can do and how they adapt. Evidence of original work, subsequent revisions and applied learning can travel with them across occupations and institutions. Remember: BlackBerry failed because it kept perfecting yesterday’s product while the world moved on. Canada faces a similar choice: Will we build a learning system that recognizes education’s full value and fully prepares Canadians for whatever comes next?