The following are post-secondary-related commitments from the Ontario PCs’ platform, Million Jobs Plan:

Give our colleges a bigger role
Expand the role of community colleges. They offer an excellent education that prepares students for real-life jobs. In Ontario, there is a disconnect between the skills of workers and the needs of the economy. That’s why we have good jobs unfilled and good people unable to find work. We will encourage more students to attend our high-results colleges, and make that easier by offering more college courses that also count as high school credits. We will also make it simpler for students to transfer from college to university, and vice versa, while getting credit for the work they have already done. We believe the way to solve that problem for the future is with an education system that makes the next generation job ready. Our community colleges are focused directly on that goal.

Strengthen the link between universities and jobs
Deliver the best academic preparation for the next generation of workers, leaders and innovators who will create and fill jobs in a growing Ontario economy. That will require a renewed emphasis on the quality and quantity of university teaching, and on the importance of critical thinking. It also means a strong focus on science, technology, engineering, business and math. Evidence shows that top students are attracted to studies in these subjects, and they are the same disciplines that drive economic growth. We will work with our universities to provide more spaces for students in these vital areas of study – to help build a culture of entrepreneurship in Ontario. We will also make sure that no Ontario student is denied access because of a lack of money. We want our universities to offer access, produce excellence and create job-ready students.

Increase opportunities in skilled trades
Do away with cumbersome and outdated apprenticeship rules that limit the number of job opportunities in the trades. We will make it easier for people to get jobs as electricians, plumbers or precision machine operators by making trades training a community college course like any other. We will abolish the College of Trades, a new bureaucracy that creates red tape and new taxes that actually stop many young people from joining the trades. By removing these barriers, our plan will connect workers with 200,000 opportunities in the skilled trades, jobs our young people and our economy desperately need.

Help people with disabilities succeed
Move quickly to connect employers to people with disabilities to develop more opportunities and to reduce barriers that exist in the workplace. Expand post-secondary education for people with disabilities, so they can develop job-ready skills. When it comes to people with disabilities, we have a moral and an economic responsibility to focus on their abilities and not just on what holds them back. Our family members, friends and neighbours who have a disability of some kind are a wellspring of talent and determination. We must seize this opportunity – for them and for our economy. Our plan is founded on the belief that every Ontarian has the right to lead his or her life to its fullest potential.

Compete for skilled immigrants
Concentrate on proven initiatives that match job-ready new Canadians with skills-hungry Ontario employers. People who are new to Ontario should enjoy every opportunity to study, work and prosper. Currently there are shortages of qualified workers in some professions, and employers cannot find local residents to fill these positions. Other provinces are successfully taking advantage of federal programs to strengthen their economies, attract entrepreneurs and fill gaps. Ontario should be the destination of choice for the world’s best and brightest by convincing those who have completed their post-secondary education in Canada, or who have worked full-time for over a year, to settle in Ontario on an accelerated pathway to citizenship. More immigrants will invest their future here when they see Ontario has again become the province of opportunity.

The Conservatives have also pledged to end the 30% Off Ontario Tuition grant that was brought in by the current government.