Carleton University is one of six Canadian universities that have joined forces to form a new national network of universities focused on encouraging experimentation and scaling effective approaches to skills development.
FUSION, the Future Skills Innovation Network, aims to ensure that students graduating with a university degree will be ready for a world marked by rapid change. FUSION is a collaboration of Canadian universities focused on innovative skill development to prepare students for the future economy.
The Government of Canada’s Future Skills Centre is investing $2.5 million to support FUSION’s network model for an initial two years.
Carleton is joined by five partner institutions: Simon Fraser University, University of Calgary, University of Saskatchewan, Concordia University and Memorial University.
Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Jerry Tomberlin says Carleton’s participation in the network is an indication of the university’s commitment to ensuring that Carleton students continue to experience positive employment outcomes after graduation.
“Today’s employers are looking for graduates with transferrable skills that will help them succeed in the workplace,” said Tomberlin. “FUSION is an important initiative that will help us continue to prepare our students for successful careers.”
Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President (Academic) Lorraine Dyke will serve as Carleton’s FUSION Campus Lead.
“The network will allow our institutions to learn from our collective experience and more rapidly diffuse successful innovations,” said Dyke. “I look forward to working with our network and campus partners to help enhance student success.”
The network’s pilot projects will focus on a common set of challenges facing universities: integrating more skills development into formal and informal learning; creating more flexible learning formats to better facilitate skills acquisition; and increasing access to, and success within, post-secondary education for underrepresented students, targeting such groups as Indigenous, disabled and racialized students, and women in the STEM fields.
To address these challenges, FUSION partners will experiment with delivery modes, teaching methods and credentialing practices, while supporting students’ ability to identify and translate their skills for rapidly changing labour markets.
Carleton’s FUSION project is funded by the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Centre and represents a new way of working for Canadian universities. As the only cross-institutional network of universities in Canada focusing on innovation in skills development, FUSION fills a vital gap and will significantly contribute to Canada’s skills ecosystem as a partner in the Future Skills Centre.
“The Future Skills Centre is thrilled to be partnering with Carleton University and universities across Canada on their project ‘FUSION,’” said Future Skills Centre’s Interim Executive Director Melanie Wright. “This project will work towards supporting young Canadians in gaining access to new skills and will contribute to a growing evidence base in skills development research.”
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Tuesday, April 2, 2019 in News Releases
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