Daniel Drolet writes…
It’s early morning, 7:40, and Ottawa’s municipal bus system has delivered me to campus, right on time.
I’ve come to hear David Foot, a U of T economist, demographer and author, talk about workplace trends. (I imagine most people have heard about his book Boom, Bust and Echo.)
While the audience settles down to breakfast – scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, cheese, fruit and of course coffee – he proceeds to tell us, in a very engaging way, about how the changing demographic structure of Canada’s population affects everything from university enrolment to careers. And how it’s possible, if you study demographics, to plan quite confidently for the future – and understand social trends today.
His talk goes on longer than planned, leaving no time for questions. No matter. Congress early risers have got what they came for – a chance to hear a well-known academic and author talk to them about issues they don’t necessarily have time to think about.
In fact, Dr. Foot’s talk itself was a great example of one of the themes of his presentation – the need for greater interdisciplinarity. Here were people from many disciplines rubbing elbows and getting a boost in their general knowledge.
I think it helps that Dr. Foot is, by all appearances, a seasoned speaker who knows how to keep his audiences engaged. (Check out the population pyramid graphics on his website for a quick look at the basis for his analysis.)
In essence, he had the audience from the word ‘go.’
Some of the things he told us:
* When looking to the future, universities need to plan for the fact that enrolment is going to start dropping. Already, the number of births in Canada is down, and that means that university enrolments will almost inevitably trend downward in the coming decade. He cautions universities against using infrastructure money to build new buildings – the money would be better used, he suggests, retrofitting existing buildings to higher environmental standards.
* Because there are more older people than younger ones, the old career path – people working their way up a hierarchical career ladder – is toast. The new career path is a spiral, with lots of lateral moves. Universities, he says, need to prepare students for multiple career changes, and the best way to do that is to encourage interdisciplinarity.
* As we move to a job market dominated by services, there’s a growing gender split, with males facing higher unemployment and universities becoming more and more female. “We’re almost at the point where we need affirmative action for boys,” he says, adding that a mass of unemployed young males is not a good recipe for social stability, here or abroad. Unemployed young males, he says, either tear up their country or leave it.
Some of what he says is provocative – but then, that’s part of the point, isn’t it? A chance to see things from a new perspective.
I guess that’s part of the attraction of meetings like this one.
I’m surprised at how strong the pull of Congress is: I met one woman this morning who enjoyed her experience at Congress so much last year that she insisted on coming again this year – this time with a month-old baby in tow. The woman was an active participant, with two presentations planned.
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