Quebec Invests 813M In 5 Years In Vocational Training

Quebec Invests $81.3M In 5 Years In Vocational Training

The announcement of this investment was made by Mr. Drainville to members of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM) during Hooked on School Days.

Introducing the minister, CCMM President Michel Leblanc indicated that the business community is ready to do more to support education and is just waiting for an invitation to get involved with the cause. It didn’t take long for the minister to grab the ball on the go,

“I want our young people to continue their studies and advance in the areas they love and that are critical to Quebec’s economy. That is why we are taking concrete steps to modernize vocational training and make it even more attractive. […] Every diploma counts! »

— A quote from Bernard Drainville, Secretary of Education

The government aims to increase graduation rates at a time when labor shortages are making it difficult to keep students in school. The challenge will be great as professional training must meet the challenge of retaining its students, supports the Autonomous Federation for Education (FAE), which used the minister’s visit to Montreal to remind him that public schools needed love .

Graduating 30,000 more students would require enrolling well over 30,000 people, according to the union. For example, in 2020-2021, 111,224 students were enrolled in one of the approximately 200 vocational programs in Quebec’s French-speaking public school network. However, only 59,233 students graduated in the same year, or 53%.

Quebec’s public schools are far from graduating all students entering vocational training programs, the FAE criticizes.

Breakdown of the $81.3 million investment

  • Support to start training in priority areas ($32.3 million)
  • Sustainability of Reinforced Workplace Learning Formula ($17.2 million)
  • Offensive to Increase VT Enrollment ($7.9M)
  • Establishment of a vocational training integration service and support for regional counseling centers for educational and vocational guidance (US$7.4 million)
  • Improved Curriculum Development Processes ($3.9M)
  • Support for Recognition of Prior Knowledge and Skills in Priority Areas ($2.6 million)
  • Increased Collaboration with the Research Community for Evidence and Successful Pedagogical Practices in Adult Education and Vocational Education ($2.6 million)
  • Establishment of a forum for strategic exchange in the FP ($400,000)

In her opinion, one of the best ways to support the public school network is to create better working conditions for teachers and therefore better learning conditions for students.

Secretary Drainville’s goal is ambitious and will be difficult to achieve without hiring additional teachers to train and graduate these future workers.

Achieving this goal, which the government says will mean a 34% increase in graduation rates, will weigh heavily on the education sector, particularly on the shoulders of teachers. Identifying the means and implementing actions to achieve this must be done with us, said Mélanie Hubert, President of the FAE, who feared there were not enough teachers to train these students.

In addition, we have to be careful not to jeopardize the quality of the training offered, emphasizes Ms. Hubert.