• Français
Future Skills Center logo
Français
Polygon Created with Sketch. Home | Research
Research

Social and Emotional Skills are Top of Mind Across Canada

When we asked participants across Canada to identify the most important skills for career success, they overwhelmingly identified social and emotional skills. This summary details their concerns, challenges, and suggestions.

Key Takeaways

1

Participants expressed concern that young people struggle to develop social and emotional skills.

2

Lack of skills articulation—where a person fails to communicate their relevant skills and experiences to employers—can be an issue.

3

To prepare students for career success, PSIs must give more weight to social and emotional skills development. To do this, they need to translate SES priorities into applied training and assessment.

Executive Summary

When we asked people across Canada to identify the most important skills for career success, they overwhelmingly identified social and emotional skills (SES), like communication, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills, along with leadership and adaptability.

On behalf of the Future Skills Centre, The Conference Board of Canada held regional roundtable discussions between October 2019 and March 2020. We did this to better understand how skills challenges vary across regions and to identify ways to respond. We met with educators, community organizers, employers, students, and other skills stakeholders in nearly every province and territory

Related Content

Car bodies are on assembly line. Factory for production of cars. Modern automotive industry. A car being checked before being painted in a high-tech enterprise.
Research

Production Workers in the Shift to Electric Vehicles 

  • July 2026
  • Labour Education Centre
This project examined how displaced auto workers are experiencing this transition and whether current training and credentialing systems are helping them move into new opportunities.
2 Related Reports
Research

Building Culturally Safe Workplaces for Indigenous Employees in British Columbia

  • July 2026
  • Coastal Research, Education, and Advocacy Network (CREAN), Oodenaw
This project set out to understand how workplaces in Victoria and across B.C. could better support Indigenous cultural time, and how gaps in policy and employer awareness shape the experiences of Indigenous workers.
2 Related Reports
Person wearing headphones around their neck while using a laptop indoors
Research

Is AI Taking Away Your First Job? AI and Entry-Level Labour Demandexternal link icon

  • July 2026
  • Signal49 Research (formerly The Conference Board of Canada)
This research will strengthen Canada’s understanding of how AI is affecting entry-level job opportunities and support more informed, forward-looking workforce development policy.
View all Research