Education and training in geomatics in canada

Abstract

Education and training in Geomatics must be demand-driven activities. This paper examines the impact of computer and communications technology on government institutions and private-sector organizations involved in Geomatics as the background for changing and new jobs requiring specific education and training. This new demand needs to be matched to an effective response from education institutions. To assist in making this match the paper proposes a model describing the functions and jobs with their linkages in these organizations, and it proposes an education/training model for Geomatics. The paper identifies a major need for ongoing Geomatics education for people now in the surveying and mapping workforce and suggests how this activity can be coordinated to make best use of scarce professional and facility resources in Canada. Finally, the paper emphasizes the need to address, in academic curricula, explicitly and deliberately the institutional and management issues involved in implementing spatial information technology into existing organizations.