Future Skills

Join us for an exclusive look at research led by the Conference Board of Canada on behalf of the Future Skills Centre, which looks at labour market demand and skills training in Northern Ontario, Yukon, and Nunavut. Gain insights into the demand for employment in each region as we explain the findings of our economic forecasts for each region. We will also present findings on workforce and skills development challenges and solutions that came from in-depth interviews with over 150 employers and skills training organizations across the three regions. This will be followed by a showcase of innovative skills training programs from each region that address important challenges to training in the north.

Social and emotional skills (SES)—also called soft, human, or people skills—are increasingly important for today’s job market. What SES do employers value? How do they assess these skills? What hurdles do they face in recruiting socially and emotionally skilled talent?

This briefing looks at the hiring demand for social and emotional skills across the country for different industries and occupation levels.

This briefing presents findings on recruiting for social and emotional skills based on interviews with human resources professionals as well as analysis of Canadian knowledge-based job postings data.

This executive summary introduces insights into recruiting for social and emotional skills based on interviews with human resources professionals as well as analysis of Canadian knowledge-based job postings data.

The retail sector in Canada is increasingly embracing automation. While technological adoption bodes well for the sector, it puts at risk a number of young people, including racialized and Indigenous youth, who work in retail. The pandemic accelerated this impact, putting many out of work as the labour demand decreased during the lockdowns. The Re-skilling Displaced Retail Workers project sought to support the design of a re-skilling program for displaced Ontario retail workers, with a focus on racialized or Indigenous youth. The project had four phases: concept generation, research, design and prototyping.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical need for digital infrastructure and internet access across Canada, particularly in rural and remote communities. Despite advancements, approximately 1.4 million households in Canada still lack high-speed internet, widening the digital divide.

CASTL has launched a national biomanufacturing skills and training study to gather critical labour market information and future training priorities specific to Canadian biomanufacturing.

The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) is pleased to announce that researcher Dr. Moein Manbachi of the Smart Microgrid Applied Research Team (SMART) has been awarded $230,000 in funding from Future Skills Centre. This funding will support the expansion of the Virtualized Experiential Learning Platform (VELP), developed to meet the growing demand for skilled professionals in the green energy sector.