done by older workers. fourth, since the baby boomers are better educated than the current cohort of retiring workers, they may find it easier to adapt to changing work environments. all of these factors mean that the aging of our population over the next two decades need not have as serious an effect on economic growth as some fear. but we will need to increase productivity and to prepare our workforce and our economy for the demographic realities ahead. a focus on skilled labour this leads naturally to the subject that i will discuss in the remainder of my remarks tonight. these three global trends - technological change, globalization, and demographic shifts - must be central to our thinking as we prepare our workforce and our economy for the challenges that we face. so, in light of these trends, how do we best develop our labour force to boost our productivity? as i said at the beginning, the key to achieving these goals lies in coordinated effort. skills development is a shared responsibility of business, academic institutions, the public sector, workers, and students. we need a system of incentives for continuous learning and upgrading of skills, and an infrastructure that delivers the training. this has always been important. but, as i mentioned earlier, it will be particularly important in the next two decades, as labour force growth in canada slows. this system of incentives must benefit both workers and firms. if companies don ’ t see the payoff from training and skills development for their workers, they won ’ t make the investments. if workers don ’ t see what ’ s in it for them, they won ’ t devote the time and energy to improve their skills. the first step to improving skills is to build an excellent infrastructure for early childhood development, feeding into a school system that effectively teaches basic skills. for canada to generate productivity gains in a world market that ’ s embracing technological change, provincial education systems must continue to boost literacy and numeracy rates among students. there ’ s no longer such a thing as an unskilled job. the workers of today and tomorrow need to know how to learn, so that they can continuously improve their skills after they leave school. if we find more innovative ways to keep students engaged in their education, they will leave school with the enthusiasm they need to continue learning throughout their career. for some students, especially boys, school can feel like incarceration. one reason why drop - out rates are high is that some students don ’ t see the connection between what they ’ re being taught in school

let me conclude with a challenge. i began my remarks by talking about the importance of productivity in our efforts to assure rising incomes and economic well - being. and just as we need to improve the productivity of our factories and enterprises, we also need to improve the productivity of our training and education system. so i challenge humber college and other educational institutions to constantly evaluate and improve the methods they are using to develop the skills of canada ’ s workforce. and i challenge subsequent lecturers in this series to come up with new ideas to help them achieve this goal. creating the world ’ s most innovative framework for education and training is not a simple task. but it ’ s an extraordinarily important one. because the more innovative we can be in skills development, the more innovative we will be as a nation. and that is the best way to promote sustained, long - term economic prosperity for canadians.