Young Canadians aren’t shying away from online courses.
According to the The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) latest Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard for Canada, more than 77 per cent of Canadians aged 16-24 attended online courses in 2016, nearly doubling runners-up Brazil (43 per cent) and Korea (40 per cent).
For Canada, this was a small increase from 2009, when 72.4 per cent of Canadians in the same age group attended online courses.
More than 93 of Canadian universities offer online courses and programs, says a 2015 survey from an EduConsillium.
Individuals aged 16-24 who attended an online course, 2009 and 2016. Source: OECD.org
The scorecard also says nearly 12 per cent of domestic scientific documents in Canada were in the world’s top 10 per cent most cited, a slight decrease from 2005, but on par with the European Union.
Canada was also the sixth largest producer of most-cited scientific documents on machine learning after the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and Italy.
Women in Canada earn 19 per cent less than men, and about 16 per cent less when skills differences are also taken into account.
However, between 2012-15, more than 10.6 per cent of patents were invented by women, compared to 10 per cent in the United States and seven per cent in the EU, a nearly one per cent increase from 2002-05.
The technology with the highest female share, according to the scoreboard, was polymer. Thermal devices had the lowest.
When it comes to science and innovation, Canada accounted for two per cent of AI-related patent applications between 2010-15, down nearly 2.5 per cent from 2000-05. Firms headquartered in Canada accounted for just under one per cent of all AI-related inventions from 2012 to 2014.
Canada also gained nearly 1.2 million jobs, most of which came from the construction, wholesale and retail trade, and business and public services, but its government budgets for R&D declined nearly nine per cent from 2008 to 2015.
