White Paper

The Canadian labour market suffered a severe blow during the last recession, with more than 430,000 persons losing their jobs and the unemployment rate reaching levels unseen since the latter half of the 1990s. Subsequently, the labour market has shown great resilience, and there are now 900,000 more Canadians employed since the beginning of the recovery. Important weaknesses remain, however: long-term and youth unemployment still stand at obstinately high levels – despite a recent growth in job vacancies. This E-Brief argues the best way to further support the Canadian labour market would be through policies that enhance labour mobility and emphasize skills training to help ensure unemployed Canadians have the right skill sets to integrate into the workforce.

This project examined how external factors have changed the way companies interact with their workforce. It also examined models of the workplace of the past and the workplace of today to better illustrate the impact of market forces on both the employers and employees. Lastly, it proposes a new model in which employers can work more deliberately and strategically to employ a more satisfied, engaged and productive workforce, and to ultimately compete in today's unforgiving marketplace.

This note focuses on the duration of growth spells—defined as the interval starting with a growth upbreak and ending with a downbreak—and on the links between duration and various policies and country characteristics, including income distribution. It turns out that many of even the poorest countries have succeeded in initiating growth at high rates for a few years. What is rarer—and what separates growth miracles from laggards—is the ability to sustain growth. The question then becomes: what determines the length of growth spells, and what is the role of income inequality in duration?

The key question is whether artificial intelligence represents a technological breakthrough as the work is found in turned abruptly, with a significant impact on employment, or if it is a continuation of digital transformations work for decades. To try and illustrate respond concretely to the challenges posed by these announced changes, our report has chosen to examine three areas as transportation, banking and health, to outline the work of transformation scenarios. [googletranslate_en]

The National Mining Institute has established goals associated with critical issues that will guide its actions and projects for the coming years. One of the issues identified is the knowledge of education trends affecting the development of skills of the future. In this issue are closely related analysis and dissemination objectives of innovation trends that may have an impact on the mining training in Quebec. Another issue that interested the Institute is updating the training offer by carrying forward and prospective studies for the development of a repository of skills sought in the Quebec mining industry. For this work, the Institute wishes to contribute to the work initiated at the national level in connection with the digital transformation in the context of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, especially by bringing its expertise to the development of the future National Strategy on workforce. Designed with the aim of becoming a reference tool, this book should be considered in a coherent approach of consultation leading to the preparation of national guidelines. The production of this book is part of the research process now well established in the Institute. The contextual elements that are presented are the result of a working methodical research and rigorous analysis made during the past year. The proposed action are the result of careful consideration and are founded on concrete observations on the ground. With this work, the Institute addresses several of its preferred partners, the he hopes, will find elements that can contribute to achieving their respective goals. INTRODUCTION 10 Chapter 1 presents the attractions of digital transformation for Quebec mining companies. These can be grouped find the latest trends in the implementation of new technologies, as well as ways to implement and to mobilize resources to make the transition to digital. Topics are there including the establishment of a clear vision, leadership and organizational digital culture. Chapter 2 focuses on the anticipation of 21st century skills arising from the Industrial Revolution 4.0. It suggests modernizing teaching and learning models to facilitate the necessary adequacy of training and skills. For players in the field of education and people interested in the attraction, recruitment and development of the workforce, this chapter provides food for thought as well as a draft framework skills employability. Finally, it places particular emphasis on the need to encourage and support measures to facilitate learning throughout life. To contextualize the material presented and guide thinking and decision making, the important thought has Institute identify key issues that stand out, and operational courses of action that may be brought forward. Finally, the Institute hopes to expand its partner network by sharing not only his knowledge of the issues associated with skills required in the coming years, but also its ability to carry out projects that contribute to the updating of the training offer and attracting a diverse workforce. [googletranslate_en]

This Evidence Report synthesises the key recent research evidence on the theme of High-Performance Working (HPW), setting out clearly the current state of knowledge on the topic, and identifying research gaps and policy questions. The report is one of the first outputs from the UK Commission’s Skills Utilisation project, complementing a fuller literature review conducted by Scottish Government. It will be followed in the coming months by other reports from this major project, which is looking at how the use of the HPW approach can help to ensure skills are better used in UK workplaces. We hope you find this report useful and informative in building the evidence we need to achieve a more prosperous and inclusive society.

Outcomes‐based education (OBE), namely the emphasis in education systems on learning outcomes and their assessment, has had one of the largest and most significant impacts on postsecondary education (PSE) in recent decades. Not only does OBE present clear statements to describe students’ skills and abilities, it also provides the vehicle by which postsecondary institutions can assess and improve the quality of their programs and demonstrate the value of these programs to both employers and the general public. Ontario PSE institutions, colleges in particular, have long embraced OBE. From the development of postsecondary program standards that specify the vocational learning outcomes of their credentials, to the inclusion of general education requirements, and the introduction of outcomes that require graduates to demonstrate skills in communication, numeracy, critical thinking and problem solving, information management, interpersonal skills, and personal skills — known collectively as the essential employability skills (EES) — Ontario colleges have provided leadership in the development of OBE. However, this leadership is not as uniformly evident when we consider the assessment of learning outcomes. Whereas numerous assessment approaches, as well as research to support their validity as measures of student performance, have evolved at the vocational level, in the case of the essential skills, and primarily of critical thinking (CT) — the focus of this study — there is to date no definitive assessment strategy. This situation is compounded by an ongoing lack of common understanding and consensus of what constitutes an essential skill such as CT, and the abilities that demonstrate its attainment.

Social protection systems around the world face challenges to provide full and effective coverage for workers in all forms of employment, including those in “new” forms of employment. While some emerging work and employment arrangements may provide greater flexibility for workers and employers, they may lead to significant gaps in social protection coverage, at a time when demands on social protection systems are increasing. It is therefore necessary to strengthen and adapt social protection systems to enable them to continue to fulfil their key role in preventing and reducing poverty, enhancing income security and limiting inequality. This paper provides a review of innovative approaches that countries have undertaken to close coverage and adequacy gaps, and to adapt social protection systems to changing circumstances and demands through a combination of contributory and non-contributory mechanisms. The paper focuses in particular on various categories of workers who often face social protection gaps, namely part-time workers, workers on temporary contracts, self-employed workers and those with unclear employment relationships, and workers on digital platforms.

What explains the current low rate of employment in the US? While there has been substantial debate over this question in recent years, we believe that considerable added insight can be derived by focusing on changes in the labor market at the turn of the century. In particular, we argue that in about the year 2000, the demand for skill (or, more specifically, for cognitive tasks often associated with high educational skill) underwent a reversal. Many researchers have documented a strong, ongoing increase in the demand for skills in the decades leading up to 2000. In this paper, we document a decline in that demand in the years since 2000, even as the supply of high education workers continues to grow. We go on to show that, in response to this demand reversal, high-skilled workers have moved down the occupational ladder and have begun to perform jobs traditionally performed by lower-skilled workers. This de-skilling process, in turn, results in high-skilled workers pushing low-skilled workers even further down the occupational ladder and, to some degree, out of the labor force all together. In order to understand these patterns, we offer a simple extension to the standard skill biased technical change model that views cognitive tasks as a stock rather than a flow. We show how such a model can explain the trends in the data that we present and offers a novel interpretation of the current employment situation in the US.