Liberally applying Bryan Adams’ lyrics inappropriately, I have been writing about the importance of international students ’til my fingers bled. I was glad to hear the feds are now taking this seriously in Atlantic Canada. There is so much to like about this as a population growth tool: 1) they get Canadian education (overcoming a barrier); 2) they learn better English and/or French (overcoming a barrier); 3) they ‘test drive’ the community (overcoming a barrier); and 4) they get a look at our lovely winters (overcoming a barrier).
But it is important to remember that most new jobs still do not require a university – upwards of 70% depending on the timeframe and source. Take a look at the following table for Moncton. Other than the professional and management positions the other occupational groups do not require university (for the most part).
I love bringing kids here to study university but I really love bringing kids here to study at college for a year or two with a direct path into the industries that need workers. For the international students studying at university we need to think about more creative ways to tie them into the labour market – self-employment support, experiential learning, remote work (I know several international students that graduated and are no working from home for national firms).
Fastest growing occupations – Moncton CMA (2013-2017)
Source: Statistics Canada CANSIM Table 282-0159.
Good Stats. I noticed that a lot of the higher growth is in the service based sectors (health/financial/education etc) while some of the lowest growth are in manufacturing or production. What is the mass balance between service and manufacturing/production? Do these stats add wealth to the province? or are the costs of the service based occupation(in the case of health and education) outpacing manufacturing/production gains?