Bridging the Gap: What Liberal Arts Grads Need to Know About Their Future
Author: RBC Thought Leadership
“I told them straight up, I’m not technically gifted,” Adatia said. “I bring something different.”
In the end, he landed the job. In the age of disruption, different can be good.
In a new RBC report, Bridging the Gap: What Canadians Told us about the Skills Revolution, we followed up on our landmark research into the future of work, Humans Wanted, by spending a year travelling across the country, engaging with students, educators, business owners and policymakers.
Over the course of those discussions, a number of insights emerged into how the skills revolution is playing out across our country — and the challenges we need to confront.
One of those challenges is that Liberal Arts programs are in decline — even though demand for their skills is up. We heard from employers that they are increasingly looking for candidates with the soft skills cultivated in the arts and sciences, such as critical thinking and communication — but post-secondary leaders told us enrollment in the Liberal Arts is down by double-digits.
In our tech-obsessed society, public discourse is so hostile to the humanities that young people are turning away from them, according to Patrick Deane, the president at McMaster University.
“Parents, governments and society at large underestimate the critical skills fostered in the humanities – this is a long-term systemic and cultural problem,” Deane said.
Between 2011 and 2017, enrollment in the humanities fell by 17.5%. Over the same period, enrollment increased by 45% in mathematics, computer and information sciences. These areas of study are seen as a more direct path to a steady job after graduation, the holy grail for young people who grew up in the shadow of the Great Recession.
Students studying arts and sciences find themselves worrying about where they fit into the future of work.
“Everyone’s scared of not getting a job,” Adatia said. “You can have a passion but you can’t have a job, that’s the perception.”
But it’s not the reality. While students are increasingly choosing specialized training, employers are looking for well-rounded graduates. According to LinkedIn, the top soft skills employers are having trouble hiring for are creativity, persuasion and collaboration.
“Soft skills are every bit as important as numeracy,” said Steven Murphy, Ontario Tech’s president and vice chancellor.
Adatia, whose philosophy major is complimented by a minor in commerce, found his future employer was willing to help get him up to speed on the technical aspects of the job. The team was excited by the skills he already brought to the table, like the ability to think critically, argue and reason.
Today’s demand for a Liberal Arts skillset isn’t happening despite automation. It’s happening because of it. As more tasks become automated in the workplace, there is a growing demand for people with the skills to both complement and collaborate with technology.
Employers are looking for technical capacity as a baseline. Those who get hired, like Adatia, are the ones that can demonstrate communication and complex problem solving skills.
Heading into the 2020s, we need more curiosity and creativity from all new grads in Canada. This is behind a growing push for interdisciplinary learning. While STEM grads need soft skills, humanities programs need to focus on providing digital fluency to their students. Gone are the days when students can be a ‘master of one’.
The future of work may be changing, but Canada’s youth have the potential, the ambition and power to impact the world around them.
Getting the word out to young graduates about the opportunities that await them is a communications challenge for employers and career counsellors.
Our Bridging the Gap research shows arts students exactly what to do with their B.A. after graduation: put it on their CV.
The launch of the Vector Institute last week is the latest in a series of public and private partnerships and investments around AI in Canada, including the RBC-supported NextAI accelerator program and a new Google office focused on AI development.
University of Toronto professor Geoffrey Hinton—known internationally for his work on neural networks—is the chief scientific advisor to the Vector Institute, and it was his groundbreaking research that helped kick-start the AI renaissance half a decade ago.
The AI pioneer was one of a small group of scientists at Canadian universities that kept the dream of machine learning alive when previous cycles of AI hype went bust. “It’s people in Canada who made it work,” Hinton said. “For 50 years, people in AI said this is nonsense, you’ll never make this work. Now that it works, they’re saying AI is great.”
AI’s possibilities are vast. In healthcare, AI programs are already helping doctors identify cancer and other anomalies on MRI and x-ray results. In business, customer service chatbots are helping book trips and resolve online disputes. And learning algorithms are already trading equities and optimizing portfolios at banks like RBC.
That explains the gold rush in AI: startups in the field raised US$5 billion last year, nearly 10 times the total for 2012. Despite Canada’s early lead in AI research, much of that money—and the brains behind AI—has gone south. Efforts are underway to reverse some of the tide.
On Thursday, University of Toronto president Meric Gertler compared the Vector Institute to the U.S. government’s early investments in what later became the Internet. “Its significance could not be understood at the time,” he said. “Today’s announcement represents a similar opportunity to drive innovation, job creation and long-term growth in Canada.”
The Vector Institute launch followed the March 22 federal budget, in which Ottawa announced $125 million for its Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy, some of which will support the institute.
Hinton himself joined California-based Google in 2013, becoming, at 64, the company’s oldest intern. Yann LeCun, a French researcher who did post-graduate work in Canada, was hired by Facebook to run its AI lab. University of Alberta professor Richard Sutton taught a cohort of students that went on to help build AlphaGo, the Google AI that has become unbeatable at the 2,500-year-old Chinese game of intuition and strategy. And Microsoft has now added University of Montreal professor Yoshua Bengio as an advisor after snapping up natural language processing startup Maluuba to boost its AI efforts.
How to halt the brain drain? Hinton said the best researchers have a few basic demands: access to vast amounts of data, enough time to pursue research ideas that might not work out, and to be surrounded by others with similar goals. “What the Vector Institute is going to give us is a big concentration of really good researchers with access to data and plenty of time to do research,” he said.
Earlier this year, RBC became one of the core sponsors for the NextAI accelerator program for AI entrepreneurs. The first cohort of 20 teams was finalized in early March. Last October, RBC opened the doors of its RBC Research in Machine Learning Lab, led by researcher and entrepreneur Foteini Agrafioti.
“The opportunities for new discoveries in the field of deep learning are very exciting, and the applications are endless,” Hinton said in the release announcing the launch of the institute. —
John Stackhouse and Peter Henderson contributed to this piece.
Here are some key qualities to look for in potential board members:
Experience Identify seasoned professionals who can add value, insight, credibility and experience to guide your company.
A willingness to push you Look for individuals who are going to challenge your ideas and strategies to help you get to the next level.
Specialized knowledge Tap individuals with unique skills to create well-rounded thought leadership around the boardroom table.
An understanding of the big picture Your board members aren’t there to get in the weeds. You want them to have a broad vision, and to be in tune with what’s happening out there in the world.
A network The best directors know lots of people—contacts that are aware of pending changes to regulations, know talent outside your circle, or have the inside scoop on office space or suppliers.
An ability to raise your profileThere’s great value in board members who can open doors to public-speaking opportunities, introduce you to decision-makers, and promote your brand.
When hiring a director, there’s a lot to consider. This individual will be your partner, advocate, co-strategist and a key investor in your success.
Here are some key questions to ask when hiring a director:
What else have you invested in? Explore whether there are synergies that can be leveraged between their investments.
Can you introduce us to your network? Remember, this individual’s rolodex is one of his or her most valuable contributions to your company.
Have you operated a startup before? If you only look at the financials of a startup, they don’t always make sense. The market may not exist yet, the need may not be established, and everything is new. You need someone who has been there before, and has the ability to envision a new market.
When you’re running a business, relationships are key to your success. As you scale up and even look to go public, you’ll need a board that’s behind you every step of the way, and shares your vision for the company you’ve started. Select carefully, take your time, and hire outside help if you need a professional opinion throughout this important process.
For a room packed with (current and future) business owners, the advice and insight proffered was as valuable as it was authentic. Here are 10 tips that came out of Go North that every tech entrepreneur might want to take to heart.
1. It’s all about talent
Seriously. Hiring and keeping the best in talent is the single most important thing you can do for your company. And some words of wisdom: Hire for potential over experience, and if you’re not qualified to hire the very best for every role, get outside help.
2. Pick up senior talent
Having the best tech minds is one thing. But if you want to take your business to the next level, you need seasoned business talent that’s been there, done that. Add seniority to your team and find someone who has managed a product team, understands marketing, and has the vision and experience to scale your company.
3. Don’t sell out too early
Dragon’s Den star Michele Romanow told us that when you look at all of the companies that have been sold over the last year, and how much they have appreciated, Canadian companies rise to the top. That means our companies are the most undervalued in the world and our startups are getting wooed too quickly by big companies with big offers. Instead of getting tempted by the first juicy offer, recognize the value in your company and either hold out for more or hang on and keep building.
4. Leverage the community
Our tech community is collaborative, friendly, honest and chock full of people willing to share ideas, advice and knowledge.Use this to your advantage. Find mentors who are about a year ahead of you, since they’ve just been through the challenges you’re facing and have come out the other side.And if you’re thinking of selling? Ted Livingston of Kik and Harley Finkelstein of Shopify both said they would be willing to act as mentors for startups in the community, and discuss the process with you.
5. Don’t underestimate the value of the U.S.
While you might be thinking of steering clear of the U.S. right about now, keep in mind that they’re still likely your biggest customer (and if not, they’re your biggest opportunity). What’s more, the U.S. sets the tech agenda for the world – you need to make it there if you want to make it big.
6. Go public when you’re ready
Going public makes you think longer term about your business, and provides the capital structure you need to focus on building it. Just make sure you’re ready for it. To become a public company, you need to look like one and act like one, with buttoned-down policies and procedures, and a solid track record of performance.Need help with that? See #2.
7. Know you’re good enough
Confidence has always been one of the biggest issues for Canadians – and when it comes to our tech companies, the pattern continues.Sure, something could go wrong with your company, your IPO or your next launch. But that’s not what you should be fixating on.Focus instead on your strengths, your potential and your awesome product. A doubtful entrepreneur never wins.
8. Find the right investors
You may be at the stage where any investor seems like the right investor.Just keep in mind that you will likely be spending a great deal of time with your investors, so look for a firm that you can partner with – who shares your vision, fits your style, and can offer more than just funding. It’s also smart to seek out investors who may be lighter on capital but heavier on advice, energy and guidance. These are the people who tend to come through during clutch situations.
9. Look up once in a while
It’s easy to get so focused on perfecting your product that you spend all day every day with your head down.Once in a while, step outside your office and get ideas and feedback from the people and companies around you.Don’t lose sight of user experience.
10. Actively hire for diversity
Diversity of background, experience, gender and age brings diversity of thought, ideas and perspective. You want a mix of people around your table so that together, you can create breakthrough ideas and experiences. Keep in mind, if you’re looking in the same places or using the same hiring campaigns all the time, the same kind of people will come knocking. Expand your hiring horizons, actively look for people different from you, and see what great things unfold.
No wonder talent was one of the hottest topics at Go North, a brainstorming conference for entrepreneurs put on last month by Google and RBC in Toronto. There was a lot of talk about what Canada’s doing right—producing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) grads that are the envy of the world, for one—and what companies here need to do better. Here are some of the takeaways.
What we’re doing right
Our universities are producing top tech talent
Canada has a highly educated talent pool, drawn from universities and institutions that produce some of the best technology graduates in the world.
Our schools go beyond offering some of the strongest math programs around: they’re also teaching students how to apply it—in computer science, in real-world scenarios, and for the benefit of new technology companies.
What we need to (continue to) do to succeed
Empower to retain
Engineers, by nature, thrive on learning. In order to retain top talent, it’s critical to empower them. Instead of saying “You need to build this,” an employer should be saying “Here’s the problem. Now solve it.”
Employers also need to be mindful of overprescribing. Trust your employees with the challenges you’re giving them.
Leverage Canadians’ sense of loyalty
Canadians have a sense of loyalty.Employees will stick with a company for years, rather than jumping from business to business, as is more common in Silicon Valley.
What this means for entrepreneurs: employees who joined your firm when it was a startup will often ride the wave with you instead of running for the hills (or Valley).
Hire for potential over experience
Talent is irreplaceable.You’ve got to find people who really have it. You can teach skills, and let them build experience with you.
Other things to look for? Fit, personality, aptitude, interest, energy and passion.
Look for people who love to solve problems—it doesn’t matter what kind. What matters: their enthusiasm for digging into a problem and their talent for finding a new solution.
Then, hire for experience
When you’re ready to scale up your business, identify people who have experience in larger organizations.
Find people who know how to take a company from a few dozen employees to a few hundred. Look for leaders who can manage product, finance, marketing and operations teams.
Diversify your employee base
Don’t hire only people who are like you. Actively look for diversity of background, gender, experience and age.
A diverse set of employees can foster a range of thought and perspective, lead to unique ideas, innovative solutions, and breakthrough experiences.
Where we need some work
Our talent pipeline needs to stay stocked
While our post-secondary institutions are doing a bang-up job of producing exceptional talent, Canada could do more to develop early-stage tech skills.
Other countries have integrated a coding curriculum into elementary programs—if Canada wants to compete, we need to introduce technology into the school system earlier, and more effectively.
Face the talent shortage head-on
To build a globally competitive company, it’s critical to bring talent in from around the world. Canada makes up 2% of the global population.That means we can’t build companies with just Canadians.
While a firm has to compete on salary, it’s also important to highlight the other benefits of living in Canada: affordable living, work-life balance, employer-employee loyalty, and an incredibly collaborative community that drives a culture of innovation.
Have efforts to improve gender diversity in the workplace stalled? Women are reaching the top ranks at Canadian companies in greater numbers than ever before. But men are still two to three times more likely to be in senior management positions, according to Catalyst, an organization focused on workplace inclusion. What gives?
We looked for some answers at Catalyst’s Canada Honours conference in Toronto in November, which featured four people who’ve championed women’s advancement in their own firms. They included Frank Vettese, CEO at Deloitte Canada; Carol Osler, Senior Vice-President of TD’s Financial Crimes and Fraud Management Group; Philip Grosch, a partner at PwC Canada; and Anna Tudela, VP of Diversity and Regulatory Affairs at Goldcorp. These executives made it clear that Corporate Canada, across a broad swath of industries, takes the issue of gender diversity seriously. But there’s lots more work to be done.
Here are some takeaways:
1. Recognizing Unconscious Bias Is Key
Even with policies in place to develop and promote women, they’re still under-represented, especially at the top. One problem: Unconscious bias is alive and well. At Deloitte, Vettese spearheaded the Canadian Women’s Initiative, or CanWin, to get women to see themselves as potential partners in the firm, and to help get them there. Then, when the numbers didn’t change significantly, Vettese decided to look at his own biases. “I realized I was bringing in people that looked a lot like me,” he said.
Bias took a more traditional form in Osler’s field of security. Male hiring managers looked for candidates who were tall or strong, or as she said, able to “bring him down.” Osler’s solution: take physicality out of the equation, and look for gender-neutral attributes like powers of observation.
Vettese raised another important point. Some people are biased against the idea of promoting diversity: seeing it as frivolous, or a diversion from a firm’s core business. How did Deloitte change that mindset? By baking diversity into its value proposition to clients, by making the business case that a diverse set of partners produce better ideas, and results.
2. Career advancement is not always a straight line up
Osler said she’s done well in security by taking every opportunity to learn, and by focusing on her skills. She also credited her success to another choice: not sitting still when she bumped up against her employer’s glass ceiling. After being passed over for a promotion she thought she deserved, Osler opted to leave and take a lower-paying position elsewhere. She eventually came back to the same firm, in a leading role.
Tudela sidestepped perceived barriers by taking a job at an exploration-focused mining firm for the varied experience it provided. She urged women in her field not to be afraid to take chances, like putting in a stint at a remote mining site. And if you aren’t getting promoted, don’t wait. “Sometimes, if you’re a woman, you need to be moving to find out where you want to go,” she said. That’s what took her from South America to the U.S. to an executive position at one of Canada’s largest mining companies.
3. Quota, no. Metrics, yes
Some European countries, tired of the slow pace of change when it comes to achieving gender parity in the workplace, have set corporate quotas for women in executive and board ranks. Norway has gone that route, as has Germany. So far, the results have been mixed. And the four panelists had no interest in importing the experiment. Quotas imply “a lack of merit,” Osler said.
But without hard targets, how do you bring about change? Grosch said “putting a lens” on your practices is key — meaning a firm has to take a hard look at its hiring, and employ numbers to measure success. Vettese suggested boosting engagement and flattening out management structures as a way to go.
4. Tone from the top. Action from the bottom, and everywhere else
Our panelists agreed that buy-in from a firm’s leadership is key to ensuring more women get promoted. When leaders take gender diversity seriously as a business issue, their employees are more likely to as well. But is change happening fast enough? Maybe not, especially for millennials. This generation is accelerating change by voting with their feet when they don’t see it happening fast enough, Grosch said. Regardless of gender, professionals under the age of 35 see the opportunity to strike out on their own, or to join a start-up, as a reasonable alternative to corporate frustration. For large employers, it’s not just a loss of employees, but a loss of diversity. The panelists advised companies to set an expectation for their staff, and then give everyone, regardless of level, the chance to make things happen.
Digital technology now accounts for 4.4% of economic activity, 600,000 jobs and $172 billion in economic output. We’re in the game, for sure. We’re just not on the podium. What do we need? Canada’s prospects and pitfalls were on stage last Friday at Go North, a brainstorming conference for entrepreneurs put on by Google and Royal Bank of Canada at Toronto’s Evergreen Brickworks.
Here are 10 big insights that emerged — and some ideas to help get us there:
1. Pick a lane, and stick to it
Canada moved up the Olympics standings by focusing more money on fewer sports. Same approach is needed for technology. Mike Lazaridis, co-founder of Research in Motion and Quantum Valley Investments, stressed it’s hard for 35 million people to be great at everything. He said we should double down on clusters of excellence. His point: If you’re not in the top 5, you won’t be in the game when it comes to attracting investment and talent.
Idea: Declare artificial intelligence and quantum computing as national priorities, and measure Canada’s success at them globally.
2. Attract. Retain. Rinse. Repeat.
№1 issue was talent. In digital, it’s not a game-changer; it is the game. Why? The biggest expense for any tech company is people. The top question for any investor is people. Trouble is, while Canada has a lot of engineering and start-up people, we’re way behind on “senior talent” — people who have taken a $10-million company and 10x’d it. Michael Litt from Vidyard, a video intelligence business, said he has three executives who commute from the United States, because he can’t find the senior talent in Canada.
Retaining such talent matters hugely, too. Ted Livingston, founder of the social messaging company Kik, said he recently asked a University of Waterloo audience, how many graduates planned to stay in the area. Of 500 present, 3 raised their hands. How many planned to go to Silicon Valley? Roughly half.
Once we can retain our top engineers and attract some exceptional, influential senior leaders, the domino effect will be huge. Tax rates have an impact. House prices and creative environments often matter more. Most of all, global talent wants to be around global talent, and often those are the people working for world-class firms and world-class universities. Getting those firms needs to be a priority.
Idea: Mandate a pan-Canadian agency to source, recruit and retain global talent.
3. Create Canadian headquarters
Small fish need big fish to survive, and Canada’s lost a lot of big fish. We just got back Thomson Reuters, which is moving its executive team from New York to Toronto. That’s huge, as it will lead to all sorts of decisions that benefit Toronto-area firms and talent. British Columbia is driving the same agenda, persuading Chinese firms to use Vancouver as a North American base. Bottom line: global HQs are the big fish. We need to restock the pond.
Idea: Charge a single public-private, federal-provincial agency with the challenge of winning global mandates.
4. Buy Canadian
Strong HQs lead to more local procurement and talent sourcing. Our banks and insurance companies already do a lot — and can do more. So can our big auto parts firms, food producers and retailers. The biggest fish may be government, which can do much better supporting digital entrepreneurs through procurement and partnerships. Several entrepreneurs said they need government to be an early customer, to give them cred when they go abroad. Today, Ottawa spends $9 billion on outside goods and services. A lot more coordination is needed, as too many firms get snagged in a complex procurement process when they should be building products.
Idea: Design a Canadian procurement pact that sets a standard for all large companies and governments.
5. Sell American
For any tech firm, the U.S. is not just 10 times bigger than Canada; it sets the global standard. If you’re not big there, good luck anywhere. Several panelists admitted their biggest mistake was not going to the U.S. sooner — whether it was to look for customers, attract investors or spend time working in the Valley.
Idea: Ensure any new public capital comes with U.S. growth targets.
6. Declare national problems
Governments can help shape the tech game by setting big horizon goals such as climate change, cybersecurity and immigration — and then incenting entrepreneurs with prizes and support to solve those problems. By acting as a broker between private and public sectors, government can also boost funding in key areas and kick-start research. One good sign: Ottawa has committed $1 billion to help develop clean technologies. Mike Lazaridis stressed the importance of strategic philanthropy — witness his support of Waterloo’s Perimeter Institute — as a further catalyst for government funds. Or consider Google.org: It just announced an Impact Challenge that will award $5 million across 10 Canadian organizations to bring world-changing ideas to life through technology.
Idea: Read 6.
7. Attract smart capital
The Go North entrepreneurs recognized there’s never been so much capital available to help companies grow. It’s just not always smart capital. Startups need capital that provides a 10-year window to carry great ideas forward, with intellectual support as well as money. Most of Canada’s smart capital now comes from the U.S., where venture firms have a lot more experience getting companies to the world stage. In response, Canadians need to look for investors outside the current ecosystem, and attract angel money from individuals who have street cred. Harley Finkelstein, the COO of Shopify, says the Canadian mindset needs to change, with more focus on secondary liquidity. That’s the pool of money that not only helps firms grow; it rewards founders without forcing them to sell.
Idea: Incent global VC players to expand to Canada.
8. Attract smart people
Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains reminded the crowd that importing top talent does not take jobs from Canadians. Rather, skilled immigrants — entrepreneurs especially — add jobs. Trouble is, Canada’s immigration system can take months, or years, to get skilled people across the border. Opportunities don’t wait for months, let alone years. To own the digital podium, we need a fast-track program that gets the right people into the right opportunities at the right moment. Just-in-time immigration.
Idea: Create a new professional visa class that can be co-administered by sectoral groups.
9. Attract smart mentors
Canada’s got plenty of accelerators and start-up programs; most think they’re doing a pretty good job, too. One gap is mentorship networks. The Go North entrepreneurs said the best mentors are a year older than they are, and still in business. They can also come from established businesses, be they banks or manufacturers. Ugly truth is, the best mentors are people who don’t have time. Time to get ’em engaged.
Idea: Build a Canadian social media platform for entrepreneurs and mentors.
10. Diversity, digital-style
Canada continues to fall short on gender diversity in business. It’s the same across the tech world, which means there’s a chance for Canada to lead the world. Today, 13.1% of corporate board seats are held by women; 40% of companies don’t have any women on their boards. Start-ups aren’t much better. Despite colleges and universities graduating more and more women in STEM programs, they’re not sticking around the digital ecosystem. The start-up, scale-up and corporate communities can change that picture by attracting a range of students to tech programs, by changing the mindset of what a “typical” engineer looks like, and by embracing diversity of thought.
Idea: Launch a public database to monitor companies, VCs and the sector on gender balance.
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