Education

Education is a hot topic for our District, and Newfoundland and Labrador as a whole. We recognize that continuing to educate ourselves is the only way for us to become more self-reliant, and the only way to protect our interests in the future.

I think the key to educating ourselves, as a province, is to take a step back for a moment from the debates over details and begin thinking about the big questions. What does it mean to be educated? What sort of education do the people of our province need? What are we doing right so far, and what changes need to be made so we can acheive our economic and social goals?

Traditionally, our culture was based on what were essentially apprenticeships, people learning various hands-on careers from an experienced worker. Those skills are still essential, even though today those workers often begin their learning in a classroom. We currently have a shortage of skilled tradespeople, and we need to encourage people to consider those sorts of careers.

But we also need to encourage people who excel in the sort of"soft" skills (communication, people skills, problem solving, brainstorming) that are developed in a less 'hands-on' education because those skills are the ones needed to operate in the global marketplace.

It can be very difficult, in our current economic climate, to appreciate those "soft" skills because they do not directly lead to a job. However, it is those very skills that help us create a new economic approach for our province.

So we in this province face the challenge of bridging the two types of thinking, to value the benefits that both types of occupations bring.

We need to develop educational policies that keep the big picture in focus, that respect the values of the traditional while preparing us for the future. That sort of broad thinking is a specialty of the Williams' PC Team, and I look forward to helping to forge a new sort of education planning for Newfoundland and Labrador.