815: LIVE from ⁠InsightsEDU⁠ 2024 - with Partha Roy, Market Research Manager, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT)

Joe Sallustio: Welcome back, everybody. That voice you're hearing is Elvin Braytas, co-founder of the EdUp Experience podcast. We're here at Insights EDU where we make education your business. We're doing that here, of course, at Insights EDU in Phoenix, Arizona, as literally, I don't know, a bunch of people are walking around us. It's very hard to concentrate, but I don't need to concentrate that hard. My guest needs to concentrate, but he's ready and he's ready to talk about research, if you will. In fact, he might be wanting to talk about market research. Is it almost a tease? Ladies and gentlemen, let's bring him to the microphone. He's Partha Roy. He's market research manager at Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. Partha, what's going on?

Partha Roy: Yeah, absolutely. It's fun. It's a ball at Insights EDU 2024. And I'm so excited about this podcast. I'm looking forward to the rock and roll here.

Joe Sallustio: Nice! I'm looking forward to it. Partha, start level-setting for us. Talk to us about your institution. What do you do? How do you do it?

Partha Roy: Yeah, absolutely. I'm Partha Roy, the market research manager of Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. We are a polytechnic based out of Edmonton, Alberta in Canada. As I was saying, we do a lot of exciting stuff. I'm particularly working in the continuing education side of things, so catering to a lot of adult learner needs. My role pertains to labor market insights, looking at demand trends, looking at new program areas. So yeah, a lot of exciting stuff.

Joe Sallustio: That is very exciting. Talk to me about students right now. What do they want? Do they want for-credit, they want non-credit, they want both, they want some now, some later. What's going on in Canada?

Partha Roy: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a great question. And I think the morning session that we just attended set the tone for us that student demand, especially when it comes to upskilling and reskilling, is changing at a faster pace. That is correct. And I think we are learning more that we need to bridge a lot of the industry demands, what industries are looking for, what employers are looking for. And therefore, post-secondary institutions need to adapt to a lot of these changes.

Joe Sallustio: What are they? What are the industries looking for? What skills? And what's happening in Canada? And is it the same in the US, you think?

Partha Roy: Yeah, I think the trends are very similar. We see skills shortages in certain sectors. I think we just heard from the presentation about business, IT, and healthcare. These are some of the areas where most of the labor market skills demand needs to be met because of changes that are happening. A lot of it is triggered by the pandemic. A lot of it is triggered by the modalities by which we are delivering a lot of our courses - in person versus online. So those are changing fast. So yeah, it's a very interesting time. And as you asked, these sectors - business, IT, healthcare - these are some of the sectors experiencing labor shortages both in the US and in Canada. So therefore, it's a very exciting time for post-secondary institutions to adapt to those learning needs.

Joe Sallustio: Right. So talk to me about market research. What kind of research are you doing? What kind of markets? Tell me about your job and what you provide to those at your institution.

Partha Roy: Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. Market research, as it entails, covers a lot of areas, a lot of facets. My primary work is a lot in program evaluation, which basically means if I have to take an example, say for instance, we know the elephant in the room is artificial intelligence, right? So a lot of AI programs are getting built, getting developed. So my area of focus is to look at where the skills are going, what kind of industries are going to adapt AI faster than the others. And henceforth, what sort of new programs we need to build.

So a lot of the market research, a lot of the analytics goes into understanding students' behavior, understanding students' needs, and at the same time looking at employer needs, right? Because students need jobs. So people are there to learn to earn, from college to career. Those are some of the aspects that people are looking for. We just learned that college degrees are losing traction in many ways unless they lead to a career pathway. So that's something for us to consider. So a lot of us focus on understanding the employer side of things, the learner side of things, and then post-secondary institutions need to make those decisions based on the needs to bridge learners and employer skills.

Elvin Braytas: You know, I was checking out my LinkedIn feed the other day and I saw something about international students in Canada. There's something going on. Is that hitting you? What's going on?

Partha Roy: Yeah, absolutely. So as we know, a lot of international students aspire to come to Canada to take up a lot of higher education, graduate certificates, a lot of non-credit programs that they enroll in. Now, it's an exciting time because with some of the challenges that we have seen Canada was facing in terms of meeting international needs, in terms of labor market misalignment that was happening and then triggered by a lot of economic factors, cost of living, housing crisis, a lot of this. There have been some caps put on international students and that will affect a lot of DLIs, designated learning institutions. And henceforth, I think those mechanisms are put in place so that there is rigor in recruiting international students, diversifying the market.

Because Canada was dependent on a couple of markets like India, China, those were the primary ones. But then they're trying to diversify the student portfolio and then provide the best quality of education once they are on board, once they are in Canada enrolling for higher ed, so they get the best value for money, they get the best return. So those are some of the things I think you did get the right context on your LinkedIn. So it's creating a lot of excitement in those areas.

Joe Sallustio: Canada - we actually have a podcast called in our network called EdUp Canada and is hosted by a gentleman named Michael Sangster and he does a lot on the career college side in Canada. Do you think that the US and Canada are different when it comes to the value of a degree being questioned? Has it been happening for longer in Canada? Like what's the balance you see? Because you're here, you see the US piece, you see the Canadian piece. Is it the same? Are students the same?

Partha Roy: Yeah, that's a great question. And I think a lot of my time that I am in this Insights EDU conference is to absorb a lot of those things. But my primary few points or observations, if I can mention, the learner needs are largely the same. So it's about bridging skills gaps. It's about upskilling and reskilling. It's about college to career. That's the whole framework. Having said that, now the sectors change. The demands are very much regional. What we get to see in Arizona is vastly different from another state in the US. And similarly, there are regional contexts in Canada as well. 

Now, there are other things as well, like some of the program areas in the US, what I've observed is they get picked up earlier. So there is a lot of agility in decision making to roll out programs in the US. Possibly in Canada, we are a little slower, if I can say so. And we always try to catch up.

Joe Sallustio: It's interesting. Speed matters. So talk about speed at your institution a little bit. You provide insights to people and say, hey, look, this is what's happening with students. Is there a fast response typically to change and move the academic piece?

Partha Roy: Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. I think since I had the opportunity and I am serving the continuing education side of our business, therefore, it is faster. That's decision-making because we are like the first responders of any sort of skill change that is happening in the market. So our program decisions are way faster. So we try to take those decisions much more quickly and then meet a lot of the learner needs.

Joe Sallustio: What do you think you're here to learn? Why did you come to Insights EDU? What are you hoping for? What do you want to learn? What do you need to take away? What's your hope for this conference?

Partha Roy: Yeah, absolutely. This is the first time I'm attending this conference, so I'm totally excited about it. As I mentioned, I work a lot on the labor market insights. I'm the market research guy, so I look after data analytics, a lot of those demand trends. But I think the education dynamics, this particular conference is more on the marketing, the application side of things, enrollment management. So these are something that are pretty new for me. So I'm here to learn what those mean and how the student journey works. We just now heard about what are the different touchpoints in the student journey. There's a great catchphrase that I picked up was, you know, the "messy middle" - decision-making when it comes to different touchpoints for students. Especially when you have so many media being thrown at them, they are exposed to so many online media, social media, all of these. So decision-making is very much challenged and at the same time, I think you just mentioned about speed matters, right? So these are some of the areas that I'm finding to be fascinating and new learning opportunities.

Joe Sallustio: Yeah, you know what? That was great that it came up in the report, the messy middle. And you think about how many ways a student can consume information about your school, right? Social media, texting, emails from the institution, online reviews, TV and radio, the old ways. I mean, there's just so many ways that you get contacted as a student and ways you have to filter through all of that and get to a decision point. What do you think you learned this morning? Other than that piece on the messy middle. What was your biggest takeaway from the online student report?

Partha Roy: Yeah, I think the few other takeaways that I got is why students enroll for different programs, degree or non-credit programs. And top of the list was it's to make a change in their living, so to earn more money, to change their career. So I think, you know, that's the way how we educators need to think - that we are there to transform lives. It's no more that you learn for the sake of learning, right?

Joe Sallustio: That's a fact. That's a fact.

Partha Roy: Absolutely. And it's not to earn degrees and then, because the upskilling and reskilling is there for you to make a career move. Like for me, being a market researcher, if I get to see a pathway to become an amazing podcaster like you, then...

Joe Sallustio: Surprise.

Partha Roy: And there's an incentive for that, you know, there's an incremental benefit to that. Then that's the pathway that I pursue. So I think that that was one of the key things that strike a chord with me to look at learning needs through those lenses.

Joe Sallustio: There was a lot in that report. What's the fastest growing industry in Canada? What's the focus for Northern Alberta Institute of Technology when it comes to programming?

Partha Roy: Yeah, absolutely. I think since we are based out of Alberta in Edmonton, so a lot of our jobs are in the trades area. A lot of our jobs are in various sectors in the trades. And also we are heavily impacted by the oil and gas industry as well. And then we have our missions of net zero and various other government policies. So it's a very exciting time because a lot of the transitions, energy transitions are happening. Companies' investments are moving from non-renewable to renewable sources. So at NAIT we are at play with working with a lot of these renewable sources of energy, particularly hydrogen, exploring the hydrogen economy and what sort of skills, what sort of things that learners and workers would need to move to those transition sectors. So that's a heavy focus area for us as well.

Joe Sallustio: That's good insight. What will make this a successful conference for you here at Insights EDU? When you go home, you say that was a valuable conference because...

Partha Roy: Yeah, I think some of the key sessions that I'm looking forward to, particularly in the whole enrollment management and in the marketing tactics, implementation of marketing tactics, media mix. So those are, as I mentioned, things that I'm not so much exposed to. So as I learn from some of the best in the industry, those are things that I'll try to take back with me.

Joe Sallustio: And this is the first time you've come across the EdUp Experience podcast, is that correct?

Partha Roy: That's correct.

Joe Sallustio: So even if you learn nothing and you just go home having learned about the podcast, we have a special message for you. It's the best thing going on. What do you think about that? A special message for you, Partha.

Partha Roy: Wow. That makes everything so special. I love interacting with you guys. I didn't come up with the expectation that I will have so much fun. I was a little nervous.

Joe Sallustio: No. But now I feel totally, totally improved. This is what people tell us. This is lunacy. That's mostly what people tell us about our podcast. You know, we hope you have a great conference here, and we really appreciate your insight. Ladies and gentlemen, he is the one and only Partha Roy, Market Research Manager, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. Thanks for coming on the podcast, Partha. We really enjoyed talking with you.

Partha Roy: Absolutely. My pleasure. Thank you so much, guys. I had a lot of fun with you.

Joe Sallustio: Ladies and gentlemen, you've just had an EdUp Experience.