June 2020 Projects

We’re making a $37 million investment into innovative and community-based programs to find solutions to Canada’s changing workforce

With a strong focus on how we can provide meaningful action for our community’s disadvantaged and underrepresented groups, the Future Skills Centre is investing in 30 new projects to fill employers’ skills gaps and help workers gain in-demand skills in this post-pandemic period.

This $37-million investment into community-based programs focuses on the needs of diverse Canadian workers and employers by exploring innovative approaches to training and upskilling for emerging and in-demand skills.

These 30 projects span all regions of the country and are the result of consultations with stakeholders across Canada’s skills ecosystem. They were selected after an extensive review of hundreds of submissions to a call for proposals we established last year.

With a strong focus on how we can provide meaningful action for Canada’s disadvantaged and underrepresented groups, the projects cover four major themes.

They range from leveraging people and AI technology, to training, reskilling, and adapting within industries facing chronic skills shortages, to radical new approaches to training and learning in order to build capacity to creating an inclusive workforce for the future by not leaving anyone behind. By applying a rigorous evaluation strategy to all our projects, the Future Skills Centre is keen to work with these partners to help every Canadian succeed in a changing workplace.

Project Listing

Indigenous Canadian using a mobile device

Project

Project Connect: Technology-enabled learning for Métis communities

June 2020
Royal Roads University

Project Connect will design and test an online delivery model for a professional project administrator program created for and with B.C.’s Métis community.

Person wearing blue hard hat and smiling

Project

Virtual recruitment & assessment for the unionized construction industry

June 2020
SkillPlan: BC Construction Industry Skills Improvement Council

Project to create a virtual recruitment and assessment centre in four regions across Canada to recruit underrepresented populations into the unionized construction industry.

Scientist looking at specimen through a compound microscope

Project

Canadian Alliance for Skills and Training in Life Sciences (CASTL)

June 2020
PEI BioAlliance

Hub for multiple, industry-focused, and applied learning streams to acquire the academic knowledge, technical skills, and professional competencies for a career in biosciences.

Person at computer with someone standing behind them looking at the screen

Project

Best Practice Models for Industry Engagement

June 2020
Canadian Apprenticeship Forum

First Canadian test of online VALID-8 tool allowing trades apprentices to be objectively assessed by a certified journeyperson and also demonstrate what they are capable of to prospective employers.

Tech and Automation

Project

Workplace Inclusion Charter Expansion

June 2020
City of Kingston

Connect under-utilized talent pools with local employers in Kingston through the implementation of the Workplace Inclusion Charter program.

Computer screen showing equipment eLearning module

Project

Tech-enabled learning programs for the mining industry

May 2022
NORCAT

Project will be three two-week unique, demand-driven, and blended-learning training programs using VR, eLearning, simulations and in-field competency assessment. Final equipment selection will be aligned to meet the demand-driven needs of the industry partners.

Mentor providing learning support to mentee in a classroom.

Project

Bridging the Gap: A Learning Platform and Marketplace for Job-seekers and Employers

June 2020
Bow Valley College

A scalable system that assesses competencies (using AI based work-related tasks) and issues micro-credentials to job-seekers.

Pathways to Jobs

Three Indigenious women smiling and sitting in front of a laptop in a cafe setting.

Project

The Indigenous Employment Hub

June 2020
Coast Salish Development Corporation

The Indigenous Employment Hub can help meet labour needs for future (infrastructure) projects in B.C. and become a model for creating meaningful employment opportunities for Indigenous people.

Inclusive Economy

Hands gesticulating in front of open laptop; person on laptop in background

Project

InTeRN: a young, northern workforce enters the world of ICT

May 2022
University College of the North

A two-year network computer technology program geared to providing entry level skills and supports to Indigenous youth in Northern Manitoba.

Inclusive Economy

Employee taking hand-written notes while reading from a computer screen

Project

Assessing and developing workplace employability skills with ESAT

June 2020
Futureworx Society

Development of the Employability Skills Assessment Tool (ESAT), a cloud-based tool to measure an individual’s social & emotional/employability skills.

Pathways to Jobs

Project

Skills Development in SMEs for Faster Adaptation to Job Market Changes

June 2020
Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec (FCCQ)

To speed up the pace of organizational buy-in to a culture of continuing education and the pace of workforce skills development in eight Quebec regions.

Forklift operator moving a pallet of goods

Project

Material Handling 4.0: Building pathways to employment for disadvantaged groups

June 2020
Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology

Help new and current material handlers in Hamilton to transition to new job opportunities within the supply chain sector.

Overhead view of group of Indigenous people smiling

Project

Upskill and certify Indigenous child and youth practitioners

June 2020
Right to Play

Create innovative educational opportunities that reduce barriers to Indigenous peoples’ participation and increase the number of Indigenous youth workers with postsecondary certificates who have marketable skills.