Overview
BHER is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization that brings together the industry and post-secondary education (PSE) sectors across Canada to create work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for young Canadians who have undertaken PSE, as well as boost innovation, and drive collaboration with industry and academia.
Budget 2019 committed $17 million in funding to BHER over three years. The program was renewed in Budget 2022, which allocated an additional $17.1 million over three years. Of the renewed funding, $5.3M was disbursed in 2022-23 for a total of $21.4M over the four-year evaluation period.
ISED funding to BHER supports two pillars of activities:
- Create WIL Placements
- Generate new partnerships
- Manage partnerships
- Strengthen the WIL Ecosystem
- Develop new tools and resources for stakeholders
- Launching 5 virtual regional hubs
BHER funding helps generate uncompensated and compensated WIL:
Uncompensated: Students are not financially compensated for their WIL experience (e.g., industry projects).
Compensated: Students are financially compensated for their WIL experience by external funding sources (e.g., co-op).
The evaluation was conducted using multiple methodologies and sought to assess program relevance, performance and efficiency
Findings
Relevance
The evaluation found that since 2019, the ecosystem of WIL programs has expanded and become increasingly complex. Although other WIL programs were seen as complementary, the evaluation found that they had similar mandates and objectives, which some stakeholders found duplicative and confusing. Due to BHER's partnerships with employers, (e.g. the Business Council of Canada) and ties with academia, there is a strong potential for BHER to be a national convenor of employers, academia, and other WIL programs.
BHER is the only organization offering unsubsidized placements, and it addressed the needs of employers, PSE institutions, and students directly through programming and services or indirectly through WIL opportunities.
Students
- Gained practical application of learning
- Able to transition from academia to the labour market
- Developed new skills and confidence
PSE Institutions
- Helped build capacity for internal WIL programming
- Developed relationships with employers
- Supported international students with WIL
Employers
- Talent pipeline directly linked to PSE institutions
- Benefited from access to workers with relevant skills and experience
Due to changes in the WIL ecosystem and multiple contribution agreements (CAs), the evaluation noted challenges associated with BHER's performance measurement, data collection, and timeframes.
|
Performance Measurement |
Data Collection |
Timeframes |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Performance
During the evaluation period, a total of 42,391 WIL experiences were completed through BHER partnerships. BHER experiences provided students with the opportunity to obtain valuable work experience and to develop in-demand technical, social, and professional skills.
WILs reported from Student Post-Survey (2022-23)
27.2% Untraditional WIL - Innovative WIL & Other (i.e., industry projects, hackathons, micro-placements, bootcamps).
72.8% Traditional WIL - Traditional WIL: (i.e., service learning, work experience, applied research projects, co-op, internship, field placements).
Top skills earned from WIL experiences:
- Critical Thinking (86%)
- Problem Solving (86%)
- Communication (85%)
- Creativity (84%)
57.3% of WILs committed (i.e. planned) are untraditional WIL experiences
Though there is a greater number of traditional WIL reported, the number of planned untraditional WIL indicates that the ratio between traditional and untraditional WIL may change in the future.
There was an uneven regional distribution of post-secondary BHER students reported compared to the total post-secondary student population representation in Canada and number of BHER employers.
|
Canada |
BHERStudents |
BHER Employers |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Ontario |
41.9% |
65.8% |
42% |
|
Quebec |
24.5% |
10.6% |
4% |
|
Prairies |
14.9% |
13.4% |
11% |
|
BC |
13% |
4.5% |
31% |
|
Atlantic |
5.5% |
5.3% |
12% |
|
Territories |
0.1% |
0.4% |
0.1% |
Opportunity
While capacity building with PSE institutions and employers is a key activity for BHER, the evaluation identified that there is an opportunity for BHER to further explore how to help PSEs and SMEs build better capacity for their ongoing WIL activities and collaborations. This is relevant as it was noted in some cases that capacity building in programs would not continue without ongoing funding from BHER.
Efficiency
Overall, BHER's unsubsidized salary approach to WIL supports WIL ecosystem sustainability and demonstrates considerable value for money.
BHER funding
- Supports the development and administration of the WIL program
- Supports the development of WIL experiences
- 1st CA (2020-2023), the average cost per WIL was $280.87
- 2nd CA(2023-24), the average cost per WIL was $417.21
The average cost per WIL experience is below $500 whereas other subsidized WIL programs can be up to $7K in wage subsidies for participants in structured WIL placements, i.e., Co-op and internships.
Recommendations
ISED Industry Sector should:
- Conduct an environmental scan of the WIL ecosystem in Canada to better understand existing WIL offerings, services and tools, including potential gaps, and areas for alignment of BHER activities within the ecosystem.
- Explore mechanisms to improve performance measurement and monitoring to enable consistent medium and long-term analysis.
- Explore approaches with BHER to enhance the organization's regional presence across Canada