EdUp Canada

EdUp Canada

Success does not usually happen in a straight line. It has twists and turns, speedbumps and detours. But something that’s fundamental to success is equipping yourself with the right skills…but what are the right skills? Well, let’s find out. Join me, Michael Sangster, as we learn about how successful people have turned a set of skills into success. From students to business leaders, veterans, policymakers, blue-collar workers and educators. You’ll find out how learning a set of skills can lead to a lifetime of success. Welcome to the EdUp Canada podcast. Let’s learn together.

  1. What Are You Gonna Do for This Country in the Next 100 Years? With Kumaran Nadesan of Computek College

    3 hrs ago

    What Are You Gonna Do for This Country in the Next 100 Years? With Kumaran Nadesan of Computek College

    Computek College turns 35 this year. If you speak to virtually any member of Canada's 500,000-strong Tamil Canadian diaspora, someone in their circle studied there. Elected officials, business owners, healthcare workers — the college's roots run so deep in the GTA's immigrant communities that its reach is measured less in enrollment numbers and more in families. Kumaran Nadesan, CEO of Computek and Group CEO of 369 Global, joined the college five years ago after 15 years in the Ontario provincial government. He came in with a policy mind and a community organizer's instincts — and he's been applying both ever since. In this episode of the EdUp Canada Podcast, host Michael Sangster sits with Kumaran across conversations about a 750-PSW Durham Region partnership, a Kenya pilot program designed to train future Canadian healthcare workers at source before they ever land, and a recently published book — The Impolite Canadian: Why Playing Nice Is Costing Us the Future — that asks a direct question of everyone in every room they have the privilege of occupying: what are you going to do for this country? The episode covers everything from cybersecurity curriculum to cultural intelligence to what it means for an instructor who's been at Computek for years to have changed more than a thousand families — not just students. It's a conversation about a sector that has been doing labour market integration for over 160 years, and a college that is quietly extending that work to Kenya, East Africa, and beyond. [00:04:30] — 35 Years and 500,000 Tamil Canadians  [00:06:30] — Not Just a Business. A Mission.  [00:07:00] — Embedded in Community: Meeting the Ashanti King  [00:10:00] — "I've Been to Those Places"  [00:12:00] — Training Canada's PSWs in Nairobi Before They Land  [00:19:30] — 750 PSWs and the Durham Region Partnership  [00:27:00] — "What Are You Gonna Do for This Country Over the Next 100 Years?"  [00:31:00] — Savitri David and a Thousand Families  Read the full transcript here: https://share.descript.com/view/t7AoD6RP2Xe Listen to past episodes here: www.edupcanada.ca

    34 min
  2. Two-thirds had never been on a Set. Now There's $100 million in Production with Andrew Barnsley of the Toronto Film School & Executive Producer, Schitt's Creek

    Jul 1

    Two-thirds had never been on a Set. Now There's $100 million in Production with Andrew Barnsley of the Toronto Film School & Executive Producer, Schitt's Creek

    Most people who've watched Schitt's Creek, Son of a Critch, Kids in the Hall, or Jann don't know they were watching a career college story unfold. Andrew Barnsley — executive producer of all four, president of the Toronto Film School, and one of the most respected television producers in Canada — has spent the last several years running both a production company and an institution purpose-built to fill the creative industries with the people those productions need. In this Canada Day edition of the EdUp Canada Podcast, he makes the case that those two roles are not as separate as they sound. The conversation starts in Newfoundland, where Andrew traces what five seasons of Son of a Critch did to an entire province's film industry: when they arrived, the province had roughly one and a half crews; when they left, it had more than doubled. $100 million in production flowed through in 2025 alone. That growth didn't happen by accident — it happened because the labour pool deepened, and labour pools deepen through training. At Toronto Film School, Andrew is investing in the infrastructure that makes that depth possible: a new campus with motion capture studios, a theater, sound recording booths, and $2.5 million in state-of-the-art production equipment. The Hollywood Reporter has named it one of the top international film schools in the world for three consecutive years. But the conversation's most memorable moment happens at a wrap party in Newfoundland, where Andrew turns to a grip and says: "Never forget how important your work is. When we do our jobs right at every level, we're impacting the world." It's a line he's been saying to students, too — and it's the clearest explanation of why he's doing both jobs at once. [00:07:30] — The Mission: A Graduate on Every Set, Coast to Coast to Coast  [00:08:00] — One and a Half Crews to Four: The Newfoundland Story  [00:09:30] — "Raise Your Hand If This Was Your First Time on a Set"  [00:11:30] — Three Years on The Hollywood Reporter's List  [00:15:00] — Why No Government Touches Film Tax Credits Anymore  [00:17:00] — 1,000 People Bring One Show to Life  [00:24:00] — "It Started in a Dark Room in St. John's"  [00:36:30] — People Want to Know the Secret

    40 min
  3. He Can't Sell Sonography Machines. There's No One to Run Them with Dr. Sherif William

    Jun 17

    He Can't Sell Sonography Machines. There's No One to Run Them with Dr. Sherif William

    Most career colleges operate inside an office park or a downtown tower. Mississauga Career College operates inside a building that also houses a private school, a museum, a family service center, a food bank — and two churches, one of them so striking it stopped host Michael Sangster mid-sentence when he walked through the door. Dr. Sherif William, a medical doctor by training who arrived in Canada and found his way into career college education in 2018, now directs the college. It's owned by a not-for-profit charity built specifically to serve newcomers to Canada — and the model shows up everywhere, from a personal support worker program that's graduated nearly 700 students directly into local care homes to a free tuition policy for students who genuinely can't pay, with every dollar of revenue cycling back into community programs like food banks and orphan support. In this episode of the EdUp Canada Podcast, Sherif walks Michael through what it actually takes to get a 2,400-hour diagnostic sonography program approved in Ontario — a three-year process derailed midway by a regulatory rule change that sent them back to square one. He explains the college's unusual pre-medical pathway, which guarantees acceptance into four Caribbean medical schools for students who complete two years and hit an 80% success threshold. And he talks about a partnership with ACHEV, a government-funded settlement organization offering low-interest student loans specifically for newcomers training in regulated health programs. It's a conversation about regulation, community, and what a career college can look like when its mission is community service first and everything else second. [00:02:00] — A College Built for Newcomers, By Design [00:03:30] — The First Call He Made  [00:04:30] — Inside the Building: A School, a Museum, Two Churches, and a Family Service Center  [00:07:00] — Three Years, Two Sets of Rules  [00:09:00] — "He Cannot Sell Machines"  [00:10:30] — A Guaranteed Path Into Medical School  [00:18:30] — "Show Up in Your Perfect Way"  [00:22:30] — Free Tuition, No Questions Asked Publicly  Read the full transcript here: https://share.descript.com/view/1iW4ge9LZKn  Listen to past episodes here: https://www.edupcanada.ca/

    26 min
  4. 100 Students Want to Be Doctors. 3% Will Make It. Here's What Nobody Tells the Rest with Jason Chu

    Jun 10

    100 Students Want to Be Doctors. 3% Will Make It. Here's What Nobody Tells the Rest with Jason Chu

    Most people picture a career college student as someone fresh out of high school looking for a fast path to a job. Jason Chu wants you to think again. As Director of Operations at AAPS College of Health Sciences and Technology — formerly the Academy of Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences, founded in Toronto in 2003 — Jason works with students who already hold bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and PhDs. Scientists who went through every academic credential the system offers and still couldn't land a job in the field they trained for. Internationally educated medical doctors who practiced for a decade and arrived in Canada to find their credentials didn't transfer. Food science graduates discovering that there's no job title called "biologist" — but dozens of openings in quality control. AAPS exists to bridge that gap. In this episode of the EdUp Canada Podcast, Jason walks host Michael Sangster through what that actually looks like: a six-to-eleven-month postgraduate diploma program, industry professionals teaching live curriculum, an alumni network of managing directors and VPs who recruit directly from current cohorts, and career services that starts halfway through the program — because three months in, students are already applying for jobs. He also tells the stories that stay with him: a PhD student who'd lost all hope, hired within three months of starting. A medical doctor who practiced overseas for a decade, companies lining up before he graduated. And a clear-eyed argument for why the career college sector — misconceptions and all — is doing work Canada can't afford to undervalue. [00:03:00] — "To Bridge That Gap Between Academia and Industry" [00:05:00] — The Alumni Network That Recruits for You  [00:09:30] — "500 Applicants. 90 to 95% Not What They're Looking For."  [00:13:00] — What Professors Tell Him at University Talks  [00:16:00] — The PhD Who Lost All Hope  [00:18:00] — The Doctor Who Couldn't Start Over   [00:21:00] — "I'll Give You Three Days to Sort This Out"   [00:25:30] — "If You Have a Bad Batch of Tylenol"   Read the full transcript:

    33 min
  5. Maybe they don't need to be nurses...challenging the PSW assumption with Raelynn Douglas

    Jun 3

    Maybe they don't need to be nurses...challenging the PSW assumption with Raelynn Douglas

    Everyone agrees Canada has a healthcare workforce crisis. Almost no one is looking at it correctly. Raelynn Douglas — CEO of Rae Soleil Consulting, MBA in health and life sciences, and author of The Billion Dollar Blind Spot — spent years watching the same conversation repeat itself: not enough workers, recruiting from the Philippines, signing bonuses, and a vague commitment to improving staff wellbeing. Her argument is that this is a retention problem masquerading as a recruitment problem, and that no one is calculating what it actually costs. The math is not subtle. An organization of 5,000 staff with 30% turnover, using a conservative $15,000 replacement cost per person, is leaking $22.5 million every year — scattered across line items, never totalled, never actioned. Gallup calls the global version a trillion-dollar preventable problem. Raelynn calls the Canadian healthcare version a billion-dollar blind spot. On this episode of the EdUp Canada Podcast, host Michael Sangster brings Raelynn's financial and HR lens into a direct conversation about personal support workers, career pathing, the role of skills training, and what "super PSWs" could look like if we stopped treating the workforce as transactional. Her book is a field guide for healthcare leaders who want the conditions of work to change — and this conversation is a sharp, practical extension of that argument. [00:03:00] — "I Don't Think It's a Recruitment Problem. I Think It's a Retention Problem." [00:04:30] — Beyond Wishful Thinking [00:11:30] — The $10,000 Cell Phone Bill [00:12:30] — $22.5 Million a Year. Nobody's Counting [00:16:00] — The PSW Program That Made Nurses Stay Longer [00:17:30] — Full-Time First. Then Everything Else. [00:20:00] — "Maybe We Need Super PSWs" [00:25:30] — "Don't Use Your Brakes" Read the full transcript here: https://share.descript.com/view/sPoF6jXR67U Listen to past episodes here: https://www.edupcanada.ca/

    32 min
  6. There's a Daycare Inside This Career College. That's the Point…with Mina Tadrous

    May 27

    There's a Daycare Inside This Career College. That's the Point…with Mina Tadrous

    Most people think of a career college as a stepping stone. Mina Tadrous, Director of Campus Operations and Student Affairs at the Ontario Institute of Health and Innovation (OHII) in Toronto, sees it differently — he sees it as a turning point. Mina is a career college graduate himself. He completed a paralegal program at Herzing College during a difficult stretch of his own life, went on to practise as a paralegal, and eventually found his way back to the sector as an employee — spending 12 years helping students do exactly what the college once did for him. In this episode of the EdUp Canada Podcast, host Michael Sangster sits with Mina inside the OHII campus to talk about what that career-changing impact actually looks like in practice. They cover the college's newly accredited Early Childhood Educator program — one of only a handful in Ontario — and the deliberate investment in a hands-on lab built to industry standard. They talk about the 150 employer partners OHII has built relationships with, what it takes to make a placement turn into a same-day job offer, and why industry is increasingly turning to career colleges to find work-ready graduates. And they have an honest conversation about the challenges facing the sector: regulatory instability, lack of consultation, and the difficulty of planning for the long term when policy can shift week to week. If you want to understand what's actually happening inside Canada's career college sector right now — from the student experience to the employer relationships to the regulatory pressures — this is the episode. What to Expect  [00:02:30] — "I Was at a Stage With More Downs Than Ups"  [00:05:45] — Life Is Getting Better, One Day at a Time  [00:07:00] — One of Only a Handful in Ontario  [00:09:30] — "We're Getting the Best Stuff"  [00:10:30] — Hired Two Weeks Into Her Placement  [00:16:00] — 150 Employer Partners and Growing  [00:17:45] — "Every Other Week, a New Challenge"  [00:21:00] — Come See the Campus Read the full transcript here: ⁠https://share.descript.com/view/KQv3OwPSGbD⁠  Listen to past episodes here: ⁠https://www.edupcanada.ca/⁠

    24 min
  7. Can Canada Deliver? Women, Leadership, and the Systems Behind the Build with Emily Feairs and Frédérique Tsai-Klassen

    May 20

    Can Canada Deliver? Women, Leadership, and the Systems Behind the Build with Emily Feairs and Frédérique Tsai-Klassen

    Canada is in the middle of what its Prime Minister calls a "hinge moment" — a decade of building that demands billions in federal investment across construction, defense, energy, and housing. There's just one problem: every one of those sectors is operating with a fraction of its available talent. Only 5% of women work on construction sites. Only 4% serve in the army. And despite decades of initiatives designed to attract and retain women in skilled trades and strategic sectors, the numbers aren't moving. In this episode of the EdUp Canada Podcast, host Michael Sangster sits down with Frédérique Tsai-Klassen and Emily Feairs — co-founders of The Power Shift — to ask a harder question than most: what if the system itself is the problem? Drawing on their widely-read Hill Times op-ed on Canada's trade strategy and the grassroots convenings drawing hundreds of women from across government, industry, academia, and the forces, Frédérique and Emily make a compelling case that training more women isn't the answer — rebuilding the institutions those women are walking away from is. Expect an honest, evidence-grounded conversation about structural barriers, what it actually takes to retain skilled talent, what sectors and countries are getting it right, and what Canada's window of opportunity looks like right now. [00:06:00] — "Canada cannot meet its ambitions with only part of its talent fully engaged" [00:07:30] — The Numbers That Should Alarm Everyone [00:09:30] — "Asking Women to Sit at a Broken Table"  [00:12:00] — Institutions Are Not Neutral  [00:15:30] — What Getting It Right Actually Looks Like [00:18:00] — 550 People and a Waiting List [00:21:30] — Power Is What Others Value  [00:26:30] — Women Will Hold 40% of Capital by 2030  Listen to past episodes here: https://www.edupcanada.ca/ Read the full transcript here: https://share.descript.com/view/6fKZwzyU4nk Learn more about The Power Shift here: https://thepowershiftseries.ca/

    31 min
  8. "AI Can't Cut Hair: Human Connection and the Trades That Will Always Matter" with Cheryl Harrison

    May 13

    "AI Can't Cut Hair: Human Connection and the Trades That Will Always Matter" with Cheryl Harrison

    What happens when a 35-year career in beauty education meets a country that still doesn't fully understand what skilled trades look like? Cheryl Harrison, Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of MC College, has spent over three decades answering that question — one student at a time. In this episode of the EdUp Canada Podcast, host Michael Sangster sits down with Cheryl for a wide-ranging conversation about the real scope of skilled trades in Canada, the private investment that builds world-class campuses without government funding, and the quiet crisis hiding in plain sight: a generation of young Canadians who have never learned to talk to a stranger. Cheryl shares the story of a Fort McMurray student told she wasn't smart enough — who crossed a graduation stage with a pair of shears from her father. She unpacks the four-year battle to change a student aid policy that held back career college students in Alberta. And she shares the single question her mentor gave her decades ago that she still uses to navigate the hardest situations in leadership: "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be effective?" This is a conversation about what career college education actually delivers — and why it matters more than most Canadians realize. [00:03]  Hairstyling Is a Red Seal Trade — and Most People Don't Know It [00:04]  Why AI Will Never Replace a Hairstylist [00:05]  "Doctor, Dentist, Hairdresser" — The New City Checklist [00:09]  Why Students Choose Post-Secondary Even When Apprenticeships Exist [00:13]  Teaching Gen Z to Talk to Strangers [00:17]  The Mentor Who Built a 35-Year Career [00:18]  "Do You Want to Be Right, or Do You Want to Be Effective?"[00:24]  The Student She Has Never Forgotten Read the full transcript here: https://share.descript.com/view/aC4Fv81sqmx Listen to past episodes here: https://www.edupcanada.ca/

    28 min
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About

Success does not usually happen in a straight line. It has twists and turns, speedbumps and detours. But something that’s fundamental to success is equipping yourself with the right skills…but what are the right skills? Well, let’s find out. Join me, Michael Sangster, as we learn about how successful people have turned a set of skills into success. From students to business leaders, veterans, policymakers, blue-collar workers and educators. You’ll find out how learning a set of skills can lead to a lifetime of success. Welcome to the EdUp Canada podcast. Let’s learn together.

Information

  • Creator
    EdUp Canada
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    115
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © EdUp Canada
  • Show Website
    EdUp Canada

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