Canada needs a climate-ready workforce with the ability to translate knowledge and information into concrete actions to address the energy transition, climate change mitigation, and adaptation.

Indigenous youth in Canada face significant barriers to pursuing STEM education and careers, including low high school completion rates, a lack of culturally relevant support systems, inadequate integration of Indigenous Knowledge into curricula, and the intergenerational trauma of colonialism. 

Nearly half of Canadian adults have inadequate literacy skills, meaning they have poor reading, writing and numeracy skills that limit their ability to participate in the economy and daily life.

In recent years, young people have faced difficulties in the labour market. Pandemic lockdowns impacted school and work for most young people, alongside accelerated technological change and the increasing prevalence of gig work (characterized by short-term, on-demand, and task-based labour) have all had negative impacts on quality of work for young people. 

Cellular agriculture is a suite of technologies to grow proteins indoors, with minimal or no use of live animals. Products have the potential to be local, reliable dairy and meat alternatives with low environmental footprints and can be produced in industrial, urban and rural spaces.

A large percentage of people from diverse groups recruited into STEM undergraduate programs do not complete a STEM degree. This project conducted a systematic literature review exploring current research about retention efforts for women of colour in post-secondary STEM programs.

Durham Region in Ontario has an ongoing housing and skilled trades worker shortage, disproportionately affecting low-income and marginalized populations, further exacerbated by the pandemic. To address this issue, the Blue Door team, which first launched its Construct social enterprise initiative in York Region in 2020, expanded to Durham in the following year with support from the Future Skills Centre.

Canadian municipalities are on the front-lines of many of the acute economic, social and environmental challenges facing Canada and play a pivotal role in this nation’s progress towards sustainable development goals.

COVID-19 created an uncertain landscape that required new knowledge and tools for employers to enable them to support employment of people living with disabilities.