White Paper

This White Paper on what we have called œWork 4.0 is the culmination of a consultation process launched in April 2015 with the publication of a Green Paper by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. œWork 4.0 is a necessary extension of the debate about the digitalisation of the economy, generally referred to as œIndustry 4.0. The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs invited associations, trade unions and businesses to submit responses, held numerous specialised workshops and events, commissioned academic studies, and formed an impression of public opinion based on a direct dialogue with the public at local level - for example during the œFuturale film festival. The overarching question was: how can we preserve or even strengthen our vision of quality jobs and decent work (Gute Arbeit) in an era of digital transformation and societal change?

This article analyses the Canadian labour market in 2017. The focus is on national trends as well as key provincial and industrial sector changes. In general, consistent signals across key labour market indicators pointed to a tightening of the labour market, including the fastest total employment growth in a decade and a downward trend in the national unemployment rate. At the same time, average weekly earnings increased notably, the number of regular Employment Insurance (EI) beneficiaries declined, and the job vacancy rate increased. All of these changes coincided with stronger economic growth, as the real gross domestic product grew 3.0% in 2017, following growth of 1.4% in 2016.Note The analysis in this article uses a combination of major labour market indicators from different sources. All analysis is based on annual averages, unless otherwise noted. The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is used primarily for data on unemployment and employment details for demographic groups. The Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH) is used for payroll employment by industrial sector as well as average weekly earnings and hours for employees. Data from the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (JVWS) and from EI statistics are also used.

The 2015 edition of Labour Market Outlook is the fourth in a series of ICTC analytics that began with the first edition published in 2006. The aim of this latest edition in this series of studies is to highlight and provide new insights on conditions affecting Canada’s ICT workforce across all economic sectors from demand- and supply-side perspectives. This study tracks and projects the evolution of 15 ICT occupations in 18 municipalities, 10 provinces, and Canada as a whole. The latest innovations in ICTs – in particular the internet of things (IOT) as well as Social, Mobile, Analytics, Apps, and Cloud (SMAAC) – have become key drivers of innovation, productivity, and growth. These enabling technologies have changed the ways Canadians communicate and live their daily lives, as well are creating new business and employment opportunities. Social and economic transformations have changed the demand for skills, and changing skill needs are reshaping the entire labour market across all sectors. This study aims to provide evidence on future labour market developments to help informed decision making. The results and findings of this study cover key aspects of the technological renaissance and economic, demographic, and educational outlooks from the viewpoint of their impacts on the demand and supply of ICT talent and skills. This study updates the forecasts carried out in 2011 by applying improved data and methods and forecasts for the ICT skills demand and supply in Canada up to and including 2019. The analytical framework is based on robust labour market research and intelligence. The data for all 15 occupations identified by the 4-digit National Occupational Classification (NOC) codes were collected at the municipal and provincial levels, which were further analyzed, and summarized. The 2015-2019 Labour Market Outlook was further improved through use of the latest available labour force data and use of comprehensive industry feedback. The forecasts consider major economic and socio-demographic trends and examine their implications for ICT occupations. This is done by incorporating relevant trends and policies, feedback from in-depth consultation with over 1,000 representative employers across Canada, inputs of five regional focus group discussions and validation webinars with representatives from industry and other stakeholder groups, and valuable insights of a 22-member distinguished multinational Labour Market Outlook Advisory Group in the analytical framework.

Disabled people represent one fifth of the working age population, but are far more likely to be out of work and to lack skills than the population as a whole. Improving skills and employment for disabled people matters not just for equality, but also for national prosperity and delivering world leading skills and employment. Indeed, these are interlinked challenges: skills are increasingly key to improving employment. This paper finds that the case for action to improve the skills of disabled people is clear and pressing. Improving the employment rate of disabled people to the national average would boost the UK economy by £13 billion, equivalent to six months economic growth. Improving the skills of disabled people to world leading levels by 2020 would give a boost equivalent to 18 extra months of growth over 30 years, some £35 billion.

The European e-Competence Framework (e-CF) version 3.0 provides a reference of 40 competences as required and applied at the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) workplace, using a common language for competences, skills and capability levels that can be understood across Europe. As the first sector-specific implementation of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), the e-CF was created for application by ICT service, user and supply companies, for managers and human resource (HR) departments, for education institutions and training bodies including higher education, for market watchers and policy makers, and other organisations in public and private sectors.

Dr. Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, professor of English at Linfield College, laments the downsizing of liberal arts and humanities programs and departments by college administrators bent on promoting more "job-oriented" disciplines.

This white paper is the outcome of a global consultative process initiated by the World Economic Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of the New Economy and Society to identify promising models of quality education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is the first output of the Forum’s Education 4.0 initiative, which aims to catalyse systems change by mobilizing a broad and innovative coalition of relevant stakeholders around new models, new standards and a new momentum for action to transform the future of education.Eight critical characteristics in learning content and experiences have been identified to define high-quality learning in the Fourth Industrial Revolution—“Education 4.0”: 1. Global citizenship skills: Include content that focuses on building awareness about the wider world, sustainability and playing an active role in the global community. 2. Innovation and creativity skills: Include content that fosters skills required for innovation, including complex problem-solving, analytical thinking, creativity and systems analysis. 3. Technology skills: Include content that is based on developing digital skills, including programming, digital responsibility and the use of technology. 4. Interpersonal skills: Include content that focuses on interpersonal emotional intelligence, including empathy, cooperation, negotiation, leadership and social awareness. 5. Personalized and self-paced learning: Move from a system where learning is standardized, to one based on the diverse individual needs of each learner, and flexible enough to enable each learner to progress at their own pace. 6. Accessible and inclusive learning: Move from a system where learning is confined to those with access to school buildings to one in which everyone has access to learning and is therefore inclusive. 7. Problem-based and collaborative learning: Move from process-based to project- and problem-based content delivery, requiring peer collaboration and more closely mirroring the future of work. 8. Lifelong and student-driven learning: Move from a system where learning and skilling decrease over one’s lifespan to one where everyone continuously improves on existing skills and acquires new ones based on their individual needs.

This article presents the results of a two-year exploratory study examining the issues facing urban Aboriginal persons with disabilities in Canada (Durst and Bluechardt, 2001). Due to the topic, this research crosses cultures and was approached in a culturally sensitive manner involving Aboriginal persons in all stages of its development, from initial planning through to dissemination. A triangulation of data sources was used, collecting data from a comprehensive literature review, including secondary data, focus groups or œtalking circles with Aboriginal persons with physical disabilities, and in-depth interviews with professional service providers

This paper provides advice to the Business Council of Canada on ways to sustain and develop Canada’s labour market information, widely known as LMI. Reliable and useful jobs data is essential to delivering a well-functioning labour market and, more generally, a strong Canadian economy. Recent work by the Business Council and other groups has underlined the wide range of workplace skills required to achieve these goals. In particular, businesses are increasingly looking for workers with multi-faceted competencies—not just technical knowledge, but also so-called “soft skills” such as collaboration and teamwork, problem-solving, relationship building and an openness to change. At its best, labour market information provides clear signals that guide the various players towards the most appropriate choices. It helps identify the skills that business needs, and how they can be developed. LMI is critical in matching workers with jobs (and vice versa), and highlighting gaps between the skills that are available and those in need. The entire labour market reaps these benefits: 1. Students know what education and training to pursue and to what extent their educational credentials will be measured, accredited and transferable. 2. Educators know what programs best contribute to the economy. In that way, they can better understand what to teach, and how to ensure their graduates’ success in the job market. 3. Workers better know where the jobs are and what they require. 4. Immigrants know the opportunities that await them, and the skills they need. 5. Businesses know what skills are available in the workforce and what gaps need to be filled. Proper information helps inform employers and workers of the potential pay-offs of training. 6. Governments know which training programs are needed to fill skills gaps. Better program evaluations help policymakers allocate training resources to obtain the most “bang for the buck”. In this way, employers find workers’ skills more closely aligned to their needs, helping them fill job vacancies, bringing down unemployment, and boosting productivity and output. Canada has no shortage of labour market information. However, the data is fragmented, often hard to access and has many gaps, such as developments in the workplace, the balance of labour demand and supply in local markets, and the longer-term experience of college and university graduates in the labour market, to name just a few.