Welcome to the WEdata Sector Blog Series where we review the supply and demand of labour for each of the region’s top sectors of employment. To read more blogs like this, visit www.workforcewindsoressex.com/sectors.
ABOUT THE EDUCATION SERVICE SECTOR IN WINDSOR-ESSEX
The 262 organisations in the Education Service (NAICS #61) sector accounts for 0.8% of businesses in Windsor-Essex. Although this sector has a small number of organisations, it employs a workforce of approximately 13,230 workers or 7.4% of the total workforce in Windsor-Essex.
Organization Size: Sixty-nine (69%) of organisations in this sector are owner-operated with no employees. Of the 81 organisations that are employers, 78% are small with less than 20 employees and also has 5 employers with workforces of over 500 employees.
Demographics: The female to male gender ratio is approximately 7:3 in this sector, with females making up over 70% of Elementary, Secondary, and Other schools workers. The gender balance is closer in university, college, and educational support service settings where the female : male ratio is approximately 11:9. Females constitute most (60%) of the self-employed workers and all of the unpaid family workers in this sector.
While 57% of this workforce is between 35-54 years old, about 18% are over 55 years old and 25% are under 34 years old.
Work Activity and Income: The median income for full-year, full-time, workers across this sector in Windsor CMA is $82.2K, which is more than double the median national income of $36.5K. Those who work full-year, part-time earn $12.6K and part-year, full-time or part-time earn $22.9K.
Education and Income: The majority of this sector’s workforce has post-secondary education qualifications with over 21% having apprenticeship, college, or a university certificate, and 68% having university degrees. Higher educational attainment is related to higher incomes especially for those with apprenticeships or university degrees.
Retirement: National Projected Retirement rates hover around 4% for Elementary and Secondary school teachers, and University instructors. This translates into approximately 350 retirements and 116 retirements each year, respectively. However, the rate is much higher for College, CEGEP, and Vocational School teachers at 11.1% and will mean about 93 retirements each year for the next 7 years in our region. Projected Occupational Retirement rates show Elementary and Secondary principals and administrators with highest rates at 4.3%, followed by University and College instructors with rates around 3%-4%. Other workers in this sector, teachers and assistants have rates close the projected national rate of 2%. According to the Canadian Occupational Projections System (COPS) data, the national median retirement age for Elementary and Secondary school teachers is 62-64, and for University instructors is 65 years old.
Education and Training: The Enrollment by Institution page shows how many students are enrolled in post-secondary programs at colleges and universities across Ontario. Organisations and businesses can search for the programs and institutions that they recruit and hire graduates from to see recent enrollment numbers for specific programs and institutions. Those organisations that want to attract the best and brightest talent are wise to be proactive and build relationships with education and training institutions and their instructors. Many education employers have developed onsite opportunities for experiential learning placements for students also giving employers an opportunity to test-drive potential employees. Everyone benefits.
Automation: These projections indicate how much of a given occupation’s work activities could be automated. They reflect automation predictions that routine activities, such as predictable physical work and processing and collecting data, are more susceptible to automation, while those at low risk involve managing people and complex tasks employing expertise. The probability of automation of all teaching and education-related occupations is very low.
While automation may lead to some job losses and task restructuring, it is important to keep in mind that the Talented Mr. Robot report and others have concluded that in actuality less than 5% of occupations could be completely automated. The authors suggest that mitigating the potential negative effects will take collaboration between all sectors to increase understanding of the implications, identify local technological strengths and opportunities, and provide education and training to those whose jobs will be impacted. They also acknowledge that automation in sectors is likely to be slower than initial predictions for multiple reasons, including as prohibitive costs, some technological advances are not occurring as quickly as predicted, and people’s preference that humans rather than machines to perform certain tasks. Local consultations with employers in education have provided evidence that automation may become more prominent in administrative duties, such as student attendance records, but there will most always be a need for a human element in teaching.
With a growing number of newcomers settling in the Windsor Region, there is a need for English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers to meet children’s and adult’s learning needs. The need for educators with knowledge of the French language also continues to drive demand for bilingual educators, especially for local school boards delivering French services. Local consultations with employers in the education sector have also shown that due to continuous recruitment efforts and the low cost of living in Windsor, it hasn’t been a major difficulty to fill teaching positions left vacant by retirees. However, school boards offering services in different languages, such as CSC Providence or Conseil scolaire Viamonde can often experience difficulty in recruitment due to the more specialized skills and experience educators hired by these types of boards require. There is also some evidence that employers have difficulty retaining educational support staff in our region, due to the types of contracts often not being permanent, full-time, or due to the wages offered.
