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Former education minister Sean Conway, who headed the expert panel, said Ontario introduced the idea of university co-op programs to the world, and must expand it.

“There needs to be specific targets so that all high school students have at least one work experiential learning opportunity before they graduate the Kindergarten-to-Grade 12 system,” he said. “And all students in post secondary education need to have at least one experiential learning opportunity before they graduate.”

David Billson, president and CEO of Ellipsis Digital in London, Ont., said the region’s technology and digital media sector “is starved for well-trained talent,” and companies are having trouble recruiting new employees.

“One of the hardest things for me as a business owner is to know that our unemployment rate is hovering around seven per cent in the region, when our local technology firms have between 400 to 1,000 open jobs,” said Billson. “Helping us to be able to fill our talent gap will aid in ensuring a bright future for our sector.”

Ontario has to compete with American jurisdictions where there are tens of thousands of high-tech jobs going unfilled because of a lack of skilled workers, warned Conway.

“The problem that we face is also an opportunity, but it’s faced by others not very far away,” he said.

Some parents don’t want their kids to take a co-op course because they think it takes time away from other academic pursuits, and the government needs to help convince them that work experience is crucial to help students succeed, said Wynne.