Rotundus.com

Canadian university enrolment must increase by 1.3 per cent a year to produce enough skilled workers to meet demand and fill hundreds of thousands of jobs that will be left vacant this decade by retiring baby boomers, says a report released today.

"If this growth in new graduates is not reached, there will likely be labour shortages in knowledge-intensive occupations," the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada said in a statement while releasing its Enrolment Trends 2011. "In other words, there could be jobs available without qualified workers to fill them."

The report says all provinces are facing a decline in the 18-to-21 age cohort in coming years, although it's expected to be less severe in British Columbia than elsewhere in Canada. But at the same time, the number of visa students and new immigrants coming to Canada with a university degree -- which has almost tripled during the past decade -- will remain strong.

Source: The Vancouver Sun

I suppose that it should be noted that this is coming from an Association of Universities and Colleges, which is likely trying to gain more government funding and recruits. Yes, to me it seems that there's a reasonable case to be had here - one of the symptoms of population aging. The numbers of people entering the workforce goes down; the number of retirees goes up. How do you maintain a stable and workable system in such an environment.

The article seems to be arguing that the answer is "visa students and new immigrants", but how long is that likely to be the case? Phillip Longman has previously argued that the only way to use immigration to reverse a population aging would be to accept kids without their parents - a strategy which people are unlikely to agree to. And then consider that these immigrants will often want to have their parents immigrate as well - would it be just to disallow this? It's also one of the most common reasons given for returning noted by Business Week.

Similarly, given the current US deficit situation in combination with population aging trends, how likely is it to continue to be financially attractive to move to a more-Western country? And then, to add to this, China seems to be catching up in the area of research - as the Business Week article noted:

Despite the fact that they constitute only 12% of the U.S. population, immigrants have started 52% of Silicon Valley's technology companies and contributed to more than 25% of our global patents. They make up 24% of the U.S. science and engineering workforce holding bachelor's degrees and 47% of science and engineering workers who have PhDs.

Food for thought.

Yes... it's been a week since the last post, but I'm still alive.

A tale of two despots: Mubarak gets jail; Qaddafi gets a pass?

"So let me get this straight: one former dictator ultimately decides not to unleash massive force against anti-government demonstrators, and eventually leaves power more-or-less peacefully, if not exactly voluntarily. His reward? He winds up in jail (maybe deservedly). Another dictator responds by using loyal military units to repress unarmed demonstrators, and when they arm themselves, he starts using all the means at his disposal to defeat them and remain in power. But ... Washington ends up trying to find him some sort of safe haven for him. ... what lesson will future autocrats draw from these events?"

How to Keep Going and Going

"In an eight-decade study, parental divorce in childhood was the strongest predictor of early death in adulthood."

Britain mulling changes to royal succession rule so first-born girl could take throne

"Britain's government said Saturday it has begun the process of reviewing the ancient, discriminatory rules of royal succession, so that if Prince William and Kate Middleton's first child is a baby girl she would eventually become queen." I'm confused - is it really so much more discriminatory to insist on male monarchs taking priority than it is to say that one individual by birth gets to be in charge of a country?

The secret to success isn't a secret.

It's work. For a longer version of this argument see Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. Somehow "work" doesn't really sell too well.

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War

This is focused on experiences of American soldiers during the war in Vietnam. Need a pretty high tolerance for profanity to wade through this one, although for a military-themed book that's probably not all that surprising.

Citizen of the galaxy

Robert Heinlein's books typically vacillate between good and really rather weird (I think that the '60s factor in a bit). This was a pretty good read.

At Home

An assorted collection of tidbits of information surrounding home life. Somewhat lacking in focus, but nonetheless rather interesting.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Finally got around to reading this book which it quite well known amongst techies. A very postmodern novel... kind of disconnected and random. I wasn't a fan.

City of Thieves

A book set in the World War II era from the perspective of a Russian boy in Leningrad. I liked it, although there were a few elements that I'd rather had been left out of the tale.

Here's one claim that I recently came across that I wasn't expecting to see:

"goat is the world’s most-consumed meat: almost 70 percent of the red meat eaten globally.

The only time that I seem to encounter goat meat is when eating Indian or Pakistani food these days. Of course, they're not the only ones to consume the stuff (and being halal [and kosher] also helps boost consumption). I've tried to find more places at which to buy it, but I can only seem to find the stuff frozen in bone-in cubes for stew meats in the freezer section of grocery stores.

The article also makes some health claims:

... Nutrition-wise, goat meat is a wonder. A similarly sized serving has a third fewer calories than beef, a quarter fewer than chicken and much less fat: up to two-thirds less than a similar portion of pork and lamb; less than half as much as chicken.

And then add in the sustainability angle:

More good news: Goats represent sustainability, without the curse of factory production. They are browsers, not grazers. 'The meat’s better for you, and the animals are easier on the land,' Adams says."