The province announced Monday that it will allow colleges to offer new three-year degree programs and additional four-year degree programs in certain fields in an effort to increase the labour pool in some sectors such as the automotive industry.
“Ontario colleges play a key role in providing students with career-focused education and in addressing the labour needs of key sectors driving the province’s economy,” Jill Dunlop, Minister of Colleges and Universities, stated.
“This expansion will also provide students more opportunities to access high-quality education and ensure they graduate with the skills, expertise and credentials that meet the demands of today’s job market.”
The Ford government says it is hoping that colleges begin to offer the higher-degree courses as early as this fall.
Aside from the automotive field, the province says it is hoping the move will help address a shortage of employees in other areas such as health care, digital, data, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and process automation sectors.
In previous years, other than a handful of colleges, most could only offer a maximum of five per cent of their courses as four-year degrees.