Interview - Interrobang: Fanshawe becomes Polytechnics Canada member

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Fanshawe College is the newest member of Polytechnics Canada, a Canadian national association of elite colleges and institutes of technology, according to a Fanshawe Corporate Communications press release.

Polytechnics is a form of education that includes applied practice with theory. Every college uses the polytechnic model in their student curriculum, the press release said.

According to Daniel Komesch, senior policy analyst of Polytechnics Canada, the company works on two broad policy spheres of talent and education to increase research and innovation projects for industry standards.

The members of the association work as intermediaries to bridge the gap between intensive research and commercial needs.

Polytechnics Canada operates on a federal level, which allows the group to have a greater influence across Canada, Komesch said

“We [Polytechnics Canada] sit here in Ottawa and we try to educate and inform the federal government on how polytechnics and polytechnic education contributes to the labor force and the innovation economy,” Komesch said.

According to Komesch, by lobbying at the federal level, the company wishes to increase the current governmental funding for colleges from two per cent to a percentage in which colleges will be able to afford the innovative research projects with industries that are currently outside of their reach.

Dan Douglas, Dean of Fanshawe’s Centre for Research and Innovation, agreed with Komesch.

“One of the things Polytechnics Canada is quite strong with is advocacy. They are licensed lobbyists, so they do lobby at the federal level. This is a group not focused on individual groups at the provincial level, it’s a national group. So it’s lobbying at the highest level of the government, for supports for our educational system in terms of apprenticeships and research innovation.”

As stated by Komesch, “It’s a mutually beneficial relationship to have such a strong institution like Fanshawe College in our membership, but we also offer a lot to Fanshawe College in being able to represent the polytechnics for them in Ottawa.”

By being a part of Polytechnics Canada, Fanshawe College will be able to experience the benefits of being a member of the group, benefits such as:

· Access to senior federal officials.

· Influence in federal level talent and innovation policies.

· A raised innovative profile presence in Ottawa.

· An affiliation with a select group of institutions.

Fanshawe faculty will be given the opportunity to directly involve themselves with industries and their standards for the colleges’ graduates.

“We have what’s called Program Advisory Committees,” Komesch explained, “When curriculum is being developed, representatives from industries sit with instructors and let them know, ‘Okay. These are the skills that we need the students to have when they come out of this program or this is the type of machinery we need them to be able to operate.’ So they sit and in tandem develop the curriculum so that the student is ready to be pipelined into the labor force.”

Douglas said that having access to other elite colleges and technological institutes around the country which will give students a way “to build relationships with their counterparts at other institutions.”

“So when I meet with other heads of research, we can then have an opportunity to discuss issues that we have around the research and innovation agenda. We can look at synergies, where we can potentially work together with industry partners on research projects. And we can learn from and support each other as we build our research cultures within our own institutions,” Douglas said.

In late fall, two graduate students from Fanshawe will be going to Polytechnics Canada in Ottawa along with other institutions student representatives. They will be meeting with different key stakeholders within the government to discuss their experiences with entrepreneurship and research in the colleges, and how these helped them with their education and career goals