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form of post-secondary education (PSE). This percentage is slightly lower for Aboriginal males
(74 per cent of Aboriginal male high school graduates finish some form of PSE compared to 77
per cent for the general population) than for Aboriginal female (76 per cent of female Aboriginal
high school graduates finish some form of PSE compared to 74 per cent for the general
population).
Mendelson calculates that in order to achieve educational parity within 20 years, an
additional 15,000 aboriginal students would have to enroll in PSE every year. He argues that the
post-secondary education system would easily be able to absorb the additional burden of
increased Aboriginal enrolment. The current national system has an enrolment of about 800,000
students. An additional 15,000 students would be completely feasible within current capacity
limits as it only represents a two per cent increase in enrolment. He concludes that capacity
limitations are not the barrier to post-secondary education.
Mendelson then focuses on the demand side. He calculates that in 2001, an additional
23,000 Aboriginal Canadians would have need to be graduates of the non-university post-
secondary sector and an additional 65,000 would have had to be graduates of the university
sector to obtain educational parity with the overall Canadian population. There were, however,
only 28,850 Aboriginal university graduates in 2001. Given that there were in 2001 only roughly
225,000 Aboriginals between the ages of 20 and 34, reaching educational parity in the near
future seems unrealistic.
Mendelson’s primary recommendation is —to focus on K-12 as the gateway to
postsecondary education” (Mendelson, 2006:35). He also suggests setting ambitious and specific
quantitative goals for Aboriginal educational attainment as well as setting up mechanisms to
monitor their realization. Finally, to make these recommendations operational, Mendelson
suggest mandating the newly created First Nations Statistical Institute to develop data sources
and monitor results on Aboriginal educational attainment.
C. Strategies and Recommendations to Improve Aboriginal Labour Market
Outcomes
In 2003 and 2004, the Canada West Foundation (CWF) published three reports by
Brunnen (2003a, 2003,b and 2004) in which the Aboriginal population‘s contribution to the
human capital needs of the West is explored. In this set of three reports, a multitude of policy
recommendations were made. The first report (Brunnen, 2003a) posed the question —what are
the promising practices to improve current labour market outcomes for Aboriginal people.” It
then elaborated seven promising practices to address labour market disparities between
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations. These practices were developed from interviews
with key individuals experienced in Aboriginal education and labour market areas. The seven
following practices were identified:
• Perform comprehensive evaluations of goals, focusing on both individual and holistic
outcomes.
• Facilitate the dissemination of information.
• Reinforce the value of education.
• Consider social conditions.