April 2019: Projects Supporting Mid-Career Workers

Call for Proposals

Canada’s current skills development infrastructure offers few training opportunities for mid-career workers, yet this group will increasingly be impacted by labour market disruptions that will displace existing jobs, create new jobs that demand different skills, and change the trajectory of many Canadians’ working lives.

In many sectors and regions, labour market disruption is already occurring, leaving many Canadians in precarious economic positions without the support they need to build new skills, increase their capacity, and navigate an increasingly complex world of work.

A collage of a construction worker, woman packing meat, a truck.

Key Dates

On April 2, 2019, the Future Skills Centre launched this open call for proposals for innovative projects that help fill gaps in training opportunities for mid-career workers.

The call closed on May 2, 2019 and we received over 100 submissions from across the country. Ten projects were selected following an adjudication process by the Centre’s interim project sub-committee.

On July 9, 2019, we were delighted to announce an investment of $7.65M over two years in ten innovation projects supporting mid-career workers.

View All Mid-Career Projects

Adjudication

The adjudication was based on an established set of evaluation criteria, including:

Relevance and need

Projects must be designed to address a clearly defined and well-specified need related to skills development challenges faced by mid-career workers as outlined in this call.

Equity, diversity and inclusion

Projects should align with the Centre’s goals to create opportunities for underrepresented, marginalized and vulnerable groups and incorporate diverse knowledge, worldviews, and experiences.

Innovation

Projects will use new approaches and ideas to answer questions that have not been previously answered. This could include:

testing promising approaches from outside of Canada;
using new tools or approaches that have not been widely applied in skills training;
using new platforms or approaches for consulting with target populations;
piloting an established approach with a new target population; and,
scaling a small-scale approach to rigorously assess its impact.

Impact and evidence

Projects must be positioned to add to the knowledge base and generate actionable evidence that contributes to a better understanding of how to strengthen Canada’s skills development ecosystem.

Capacity to deliver

Project proponents must have proven organizational capacity to implement innovative skills development approaches at the scale and scope required and to participate in research and evaluation activities.

Aligns scale and budget

The budget of pilot projects will reflect their scale and complexity.