This report provides findings from the Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling (CERIC) National Business Survey, based on a telephone survey conducted between October 25 and November 11, 2013 with a sample of 500 senior executives from Canadian businesses. The sample was designed to conduct interviews with senior staff of businesses across Canada, of various sizes, location (urban, rural and suburban) and industries. The National Business Survey focused on several topics that pertain to Canadian employers and organizations, in particular those reflecting executives' perceptions on challenges facing Canadian businesses in general, the skilled labour shortage and skills gaps, and approaches toward employee training and finding workers with appropriate technical and soft skills, young workers as well as career management practices. Key research highlights are summarized below.

In Canada, there has been little objective, aggregate data available about how post-secondary career centres operate. This study was developed to be able to provide current benchmarking data to career services leaders about three major areas of concern: - Financial, human and spacial resources - Services provided to students, alumni, employers and other stakeholders - Metrics collected and reported In addition to collecting this data in aggregate across Canada, this study also looked for differences in these areas across institution type, geographic region, and career centre type. Relationships between these three areas - resources, services and metrics - were also investigated in an attempt to provide career centres with useful data to use when making decisions. This study provided three significant conclusions reported in this research brief: - Career centres continue to do more with fewer resources. Career centres would benefit from increased collaboration around best practices for how they are increasing efficiency, utilizing technology and avoiding staff burnout. - Career centres who can position themselves more central to their institutional mission generally receive more funding and staffing. - Career centres would benefit from longitudinal data to better identify trends, successes and challenges. It is hoped that career centre staff, institutional administrations and others can use the data presented in this research brief to make better-informed decisions about how to operate their career centres. CACEE proposes to run a similar survey every two years to collect longitudinal data and, thus, would appreciate feedback on how this study could be more useful to you in your day to day work.

In Canada, there has been little objective, aggregate data available about how post-secondary career centres operate. This study was developed to be able to provide current benchmarking data to career services leaders about three major areas of concern: - Financial, human and spacial resources - Services provided to students, alumni, employers and other stakeholders - Metrics collected and reported In addition to collecting this data in aggregate across Canada, this study also looked for differences in these areas across institution type, geographic region, and career centre type. Relationships between these three areas - resources, services and metrics - were also investigated in an attempt to provide career centres with useful data to use when making decisions. This study provided three significant conclusions reported in this research brief: - Career centres continue to do more with fewer resources. Career centres would benefit from increased collaboration around best practices for how they are increasing efficiency, utilizing technology and avoiding staff burnout. - Career centres who can position themselves more central to their institutional mission generally receive more funding and staffing. - Career centres would benefit from longitudinal data to better identify trends, successes and challenges. It is hoped that career centre staff, institutional administrations and others can use the data presented in this research brief to make better-informed decisions about how to operate their career centres. CACEE proposes to run a similar survey every two years to collect longitudinal data and, thus, would appreciate feedback on how this study could be more useful to you in your day to day work.

This report reviews the findings of a number of other key reports on the future of work and applies their approaches to the Canadian context in order to describe the future of work in Canada. The report identifies a number of technological drivers of these changes, including artificial intelligence. Based on this analysis, the authors suggest that as many as 2 million Canadians could lose their jobs by 2030. Critically, they also argue that these new developments can produce new opportunities as well as losses and highlight the key changes that must be made in order for Canadians to take advantage of these opportunities. Specifically, the report recommends that a third pillar be added to Canada’s existing skills development infrastructure. This third pillar, which would complement Canada’s traditional education and its system for supporting workers who leave the workforce, would support working adults by focusing on adult skills training. This third pillar could include a number of new initiatives, such as the development of a Skills Plan for Working Canadians to guide governmental action. The authors argue that any such skills plan should focus on [1] convening a broad conversation and national commitment to adult skills training; [2] ensuring a joint effort by all orders of government; [3] testing and scaling innovative and agile programs; [4] prioritize areas of greatest need, such as among low-income Canadians; [5] specifically tailor its programs for adult learners; [6] providing seamless access that is easy and simple for workers. The report also recommends the establishment of a Lifelong Learning Fund to incentivize individuals and employers to increase their investments in skills development, and action by the federal and provincial governments to transform existing employment centres to provide improved practical guidance to Canadians seeking to navigate the coming labour market disruptions. The report also emphasizes the importance of improved labour market data. Finally, it also includes a review of some promising initiatives currently underway in Canada and abroad that the authors suggest are worthy of attention.

The settlement sector, across much of Canada, delivers programs on a fee-for-service basis financed by government. This arrangement has resulted in chronic underinvestment by the sector in intellectual activities such as program research, analysis and evaluation. Service provider agencies generally lack the fiscal room to conduct detailed analyses of their actions, much less to compare those actions to those of other agencies across the country. The result is that excellent local initiatives suffer fromlocked-in syndrome,' and the sector as a whole lacks an effective strategy for sharing information efficiently and for learning from each other. Both this study and an earlier companion piece maintain that there exists a shared interest by governments and by settlement organizations in strengthening the sector through investments in its capacity to analyze and innovate. The present study develops a methodology for achieving this goal and for creating a sector-led innovation strategy.

Advancements in technology are changing today's work environment at an ever-increasing pace. Nevertheless, Canadian organizations recognize the ongoing need for the œhuman touch and are taking steps to ensure they have employees with the necessary skills and attributes. Based on a survey of 95 leading Canadian employers, Navigating Change: 2018 Business Council Skills Survey examines the shifting nature of the Canadian labour market. Respondents--HR executives at Canada's largest companies--were asked to reflect on major challenges and opportunities in finding, training and retaining talent. This report does not attempt to quantify the overall impact of innovation on jobs, but to understand how Canadian businesses are responding to this and other trends. Major takeaways from the survey include: 1 Technology will change, not destroy, jobs 2 Employers have high and rising expectation of new grads 3 Businesses are creating diverse partnerships with post-secondary institutions 4 Employers are spending more on training 5 A diverse and healthy workforce is a priority Despite current anxieties about the impact of disruptive innovation and new technologies, employers do not predict a large number of total job losses. Employers are looking for talented graduates capable of rapidly acquiring a comprehensive mix of skills. Organizations are working with schools to build work-integrated learning programs. More than 50 per cent of organizations reported spending at least $1000 a year, per employee. Respondents report that they are actively working towards having a workforce with diverse skills and creating a culture that supports employee well-being.

In this report, we take a more granular approach, attempting to understand the impact of the demand for digital skills on specific occupations. To conduct our analysis, we went to the source: the skills employers ask for in job postings. Burning Glass scans close to 40,000 job boards, employer sites, and other sources of job postings daily, using artificial intelligence technology to break down these postings into the specific skills and qualifications employers demand. As we examined these postings, certain clusters of digital skills became apparent: Productivity Software Skills, such as using spreadsheets and word processing programs, are required for the majority of middle-skill jobs. In addition, they often serve as a baseline skill level for more advanced positions. For this report, “productivity software middle-skill occupations” are occupations that require only productivity software skills and no other digital skill group. Advanced Digital Skills, such as customer relationship management (CRM) software and higherend computer networking skills, are required in many middle-skill occupations in addition to a baseline of productivity software skills. Occupationally Specific Digital Skills, such as health technology and computer-controlled machines, are required in specific technical occupations. For many machinist positions, for example, the ability to physically operate machine tools isn’t as important as the ability to guide the robots that operate the tools. The definition of middle-skill jobs has itself become fuzzy, as degree inflation and other trends make the traditional definition (more than a high school diploma, less than a bachelor’s degree) less accurate. For our purposes, we defined middle-skill occupations as those where fewer than 80% of job postings called for a bachelor’s degree and that also offer a median hourly wage above that of the national living wage.

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the nature of work. In this discussion paper, part of our ongoing research on the impact of technology on the economy, business, and society, we present new findings on the coming shifts in demand for workforce skills and how work is organized within companies, as people increasingly interact with machines in the workplace. We quantify time spent on 25 core workplace skills today and in the future for the United States and five European countries, with a particular focus on five sectors: banking and insurance, energy and mining, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail. Key findings: ƒ Automation will accelerate the shift in required workforce skills we have seen over the past 15 years. Our research finds that the strongest growth in demand will be for technological skills, the smallest category today, which will rise by 55 percent and by 2030 will represent 17 percent of hours worked, up from 11 percent in 2016. This surge will affect demand for basic digital skills as well as advanced technological skills such as programming. Demand for social and emotional skills such as leadership and managing others will rise by 24 percent, to 22 percent of hours worked. Demand for higher cognitive skills will grow moderately overall, but will rise sharply for some of these skills, especially creativity. ƒ Some skill categories will be less in demand. Basic cognitive skills, which include basic data input and processing, will decline by 15 percent, falling to 14 percent of hours worked from 18 percent. Demand for physical and manual skills, which include general equipment operation, will also drop, by 14 percent, but will remain the largest category of workforce skills in 2030 in many countries, accounting for 25 percent of the total hours worked. Skill shifts will play out differently across sectors. Healthcare, for example, will see a rising need for physical skills, even as demand for them declines in manufacturing and other sectors. ƒ Companies will need to make significant organizational changes at the same time as addressing these skill shifts to stay competitive. A survey of more than 3,000 business leaders in seven countries highlights a new emphasis on continuous learning for workers and a shift to more cross-functional and team-based work. As tasks change, jobs will need to be redefined and companies say they will need to become more agile. Independent work will likely grow. Leadership and human resources will also need to adapt: almost 20 percent of companies say their executive team lacks sufficient knowledge to lead adoption of automation and artificial intelligence. Almost one in three firms are concerned that lacking the skills they need for automation adoption will hurt their future financial performance. ƒ Competition for high-skill workers will increase, while displacement will be concentrated mainly on low-skill workers, continuing a trend that has exacerbated income inequality and reduced middle-wage jobs. Companies say that high-skill workers are most likely to be hired and retrained, and to see rising wages. Firms in the forefront of automation adoption expect to attract the talent they need, but slower adopters fear their options will be more limited. ƒ Almost half of the companies we surveyed say they expect to take the lead in building the workforce of the future, but all stakeholders will need to work together to manage the large-scale retraining and other transition challenges ahead. Firms can collaborate with educators to reshape school and college curricula. Industry associations can help build talent pipelines, while labor unions can help with cross-sector mobility. Governments will need to strengthen safeguards for workers in transition and encourage mobility, including with a shift to portable benefits, as ways of working and the workplace itself are transformed in the new era.