Supporting Mid-Career Workers in Retail and Meat Processing

Technological and demographic pressures are threatening the future livelihoods of mid-career retail and meat processing workers.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) represents more than 45,000 cashiers and 40,000 food manufacturing workers, many of whom work in meat processing — sectors that are both facing a huge displacement of workers due to automation.

This project will test how to equip UFCW members across Canada with the requisite skills, trade certifications, and professional standards needed to thrive in strong growth rate occupations such as chefs, cooks, bakers, retail sales supervisors, horticultural technicians, and accommodation service managers.

The Future Skills Centre will invest $495,000 over 12 months in this project, which will reach UFCW members in 600 cities and towns across Canada, in both rural and urban areas. UFCW Canada’s program will focus on the following three key activities:

Providing accessible learning formats to UFCW workers focused on building digital and enhancing soft skills;
Introducing a new approach to pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeships for voluntary service and industrial trades that blends on-the-job experience with digital technology; and
Exploring pathways for sector migration from occupations with high-automation risks to industries and roles with projected growth.

The project will be informed by research on the perspectives of retail and meat processing workers about the automation of their sectors and their level of interest in new opportunities.

Evaluation

This project will be rigorously evaluated using tools and approaches aligned with its unique goals and context. An evaluation plan is under development and will be shared in this space in the coming weeks. The evaluation will be linked to a broader evaluation strategy to ensure we are capturing the right evidence at the right moment to move the intervention forward. Read about our overall evaluation strategy.