College of Ontario

By Linda Franklin, President and CEO, Colleges Ontario
March 29, 2007

Good afternoon.

It’s a great pleasure for me to participate in this very special ceremony celebrating the achievements of the students receiving scholarship awards today.

What a fantastic show of support for these young people – a wonderful demonstration of the close ties between Canadore and the community it serves.

So let me acknowledge and congratulate everyone – Canadore faculty, staff and alumni; scholarship donors and sponsors; community and business representatives; parents; and other supporters – for making a point, so enthusiastically, of celebrating student success and excellence.

The number of scholarships being awarded today – 173 – speaks volumes about the support of this community for Canadore College and its students. It shows just how important and vital the North Bay region believes Canadore is to the success of this community and to its future.

As you know, I joined Colleges Ontario – the association representing Ontario’s 24 colleges – only a couple of months ago. Since that time I’ve made it a goal to see and learn as much as I can about what colleges are doing, about how they’re helping people launch successful careers, and how they’re producing a highly skilled workforce for Ontario. I’m still on the learning curve, but I can tell you from just a few visits that colleges – and Canadore is no exception – are on the leading edge of education and skills training in virtually every sector.

I know that doesn’t come as a surprise to all of you who have seen your college grow, build new facilities, and develop new and innovative programs year after year. But it’s worth noting, on occasions such as this, just how far the college system has come in its brief 40-year history.

Since the first college – Centennial – opened its doors in 1967 offering a handful of programs to a few hundred students, the system has grown to 24 colleges with campuses in more than 100 communities, delivering more than 2400 programs in 600 subject areas. Today, 150,000 students are enrolled in full-time programs and 350,000 attend part-time.

Colleges are now producing more than 7,000 health care workers each year. We have jump started more than 80,000 automotive careers – to highlight just two sectors. We deliver 85% of the in-class portion of apprenticeship training. As the colleges boasted on a recent poster: “Donald trained one apprentice this year, we trained 25,000.”

Colleges have also become very global – a fact underscored by our having partnerships in more than 80 countries, which provide students with excellent opportunities to gain international experience through a wide range of economic development and other projects.

The point of the history lesson is simply to remind all of you in this room that you are part of a tremendous success story, one that gets bigger and bigger each day.

My role with Colleges Ontario is to work with great college leaders like Barbara Taylor and industry and community partners to ensure that government understands the contribution colleges are making to Ontario. Our job is to work to persuade government to further invest in colleges so they can build on their success in providing top quality programs and services, and produce more highly skilled graduates that Ontario needs.

The opportunities for college graduates are only going to get better as our workforce ages, and the workplace uses greater levels of technology.

The students here today chose wisely to invest in a college education. That was your first important step. Your second important decision was to apply yourself and excel, which is why you are receiving a scholarship today. You are being singled out and recognized for your achievements – further proof that hard work and involvement does earn rewards.

Perhaps winning a scholarship was a goal for some of you, for others just a happy byproduct of your innate drive to excel at everything you do. Whatever the case, I encourage you to set goals – be they personal or professional. Goals provide focus for your life and keep you out of trouble. Goals are the fuel in the engine of achievement. Yogi Berra, that famous New York baseball player, put it a little more plainly: If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else. ..

I’ve been blessed in my life to have enjoyed some great successes and professional achievements. When I worked in politics my colleagues and I reveled in some thrilling election campaign victories. I spent the last 13 years in Ontario’s wine industry, which enjoyed exponential growth during that time.

But I can tell you that life is not just about great successes and professional achievements. The richness of life, for me, lies in having the courage to face fears, failures and tragedies - and to learn from them.

The true richness of the journey of life comes in embracing all our experiences fully - the light and the dark, the good and the bad. Each of us has benefited from outstanding teachers who imparted knowledge, but the best teachers and the real lessons will be found in your fears and your failures. They are precursors to truly great achievement. It’s okay to stumble and fall. The key is get back up each time you do.

So, students, accept your awards today, receive them with pride and a great deal of satisfaction in a job well done. Enjoy the moment. And then, set your sights on new challenges and new goals. There is great joy to be found in achieving things. The legendary Henry Ford, who knew a thing or two about getting things done, said “there is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.”

There’s a term used in business called “stretch goals” – it refers to goals and objectives that would seem, at first, to be just beyond reach. They’re useful in helping organizations think big and then figure out how to turn the impossible into the achievable.

But organizations aren’t the only things that can benefit from setting stretch goals. Individuals can too. What stretch goals will you set for yourself? What do you want to do or achieve that right now you may not think possible? What are the seemingly insurmountable barriers standing in your way?

A friend of mine in the wine industry, Donald Ziraldo, co-founder of Inniskillin Wines and an industry pioneer, was fond of saying that when something or someone stands in your way, move around it. In other words, don’t be intimidated by the obstacle, figure out how to overcome it. It may not be easy, in fact it rarely is. But if the goal is worth fighting for, if it’s something you want, then don’t be dissuaded or discouraged by adversity.

Every great accomplishment starts with a vision, followed by planning, monumental effort and total commitment.
I joined Colleges Ontario because the college system is one of Ontario’s greatest assets. But I also joined because the college agenda is a matter of urgent public importance, and it needs to be a matter of urgent public policy.

And just what is the college agenda? First and foremost our priority is to secure the resources that colleges need to build on their success. Many colleges are struggling to avoid deficits at a time when their facilities are aging and deteriorating badly. The government has begun to turn around years of underfunding, but it’s only a start.

It’s shocking that on a per student basis, colleges are funded well below that of universities and school boards. Consider the extra costs that colleges must regularly incur to keep their instructional equipment up to date and relevant to the workplace – equipment and technology that are central to a college education. Now consider that colleges are serving 35% more students than 15 years ago and receiving 40% less funding per student.

Despite recent increases in postsecondary funding, Ontario remains 10th out of ten provinces in funding for colleges. That’s not going to result in the ability of colleges to produce greater numbers of graduates that Ontario needs to address the looming job shortages in health care, mining and the manufacturing sectors, to name a few.

I joined the college system to have the chance to work with dedicated college leaders across the province to raise the profile of colleges, to help tell the stories of successful students and graduates – people who are making a difference in communities across Ontario, across Canada, and in many parts of the world. I joined the college system to help it get the attention it deserves at Queen’s Park; to help secure for colleges a seat at the table when the decisions are being made about the province’s economic and social future.

These are the challenges for colleges. And, with the help of college supporters across the province, we will address them successfully and build a larger, stronger, more vibrant system in support of Ontario’s future prosperity.

The scholarship winners we are congratulating today have their own set of challenges as they plan their future. You will move forward knowing you have the ability to achieve and to contribute of your gifts and abilities.

Whatever path you take, I encourage you to never stop learning. The fact is, continual learning will be your life-line to future success. Not only will it help you move up the ranks in your chosen field, as you build your knowledge base, expand your range of interests, and enjoy new experiences, you will lead a richer, fuller life. And the beautiful thing about learning is that no one can ever take it away from you.

Your future is bright. The world that awaits you is full of opportunities. And students – and parents – can take comfort in the fact that 90 per cent of college graduates find employment within six months of graduation.

Here are some other facts that bode well for college students:

• College graduates make up the largest group in the Ontario workforce – that’s 2.1 million workers – more than a third of the workforce.
• 70% of new jobs in Canada require a postsecondary education, and that figure is growing each year.
• 40% of new jobs created in the next 20 years will be in skilled trades and technologies.
• 20% of new jobs being created today are in health care and social services – sectors where colleges are heavily involved.
• Almost 50% of workers in health care and social services are college graduates.

This data underscores the importance and value of a college education as you pursue career opportunities.
But there is more to think about than jobs and careers. The world that you will enter after college will be full of challenges, perhaps the greatest ones it has ever seen. Challenges like:

• Global warming, which has huge implications for the way we live.
• Aids in Africa – an epidemic that continues to afflict millions and millions.
• The war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and conflicts in the Middle East and other parts of the world which rage on and on.
• International Terrorism, which up until 9-11 used to be a foreign concept.

We live in a world crying out for leadership and responsible citizenship, and we don’t have to look beyond our own communities to see where we can make a difference. There are so many worthy causes and opportunities to help make our communities stronger, and more vibrant places to live, work and play. Whether it’s trying to bring a new pool or library to your area, or working to secure new health care services, or providing food and shelter to the homeless. What noble causes will you pursue to enrich your community, to make a difference in the lives of your neighbours and fellow citizens?
Robert F. Kennedy observed that people are happiest when making the greatest contribution.
What will your great contribution be?

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Thank you for inviting me to celebrate with you today. To the scholarship donors and sponsors, again, congratulations and thank you for supporting Canadore College and its students. Your generosity contributes much to student success.

To the scholarship recipients, congratulations on your achievements – I know you will accomplish much more in the years ahead – for yourselves, your community, your province and country.