Future Skills
Future skills – basic literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills – are important across all economic sectors and occupations. Figuring out who and how to address skills gaps is key to building an inclusive workforce with upward mobility.
Research
Competency Frameworks and Canada’s Essential Skills
Whether it's new technology or global events driving the pace of change, Canadians are being asked to adapt in the workplace. Canada needs an essential skills framework that includes and looks beyond simple literacy and numeracy. It needs to include the 'soft skills' that industry leaders say are key to success and other essential skills that will help Canadians adapt, no matter what comes their way. Each needs to be measured and tracked to ensure Canadians remain globally competitive, and this paper argues that renewing Canada’s Essentials Skills framework is the place to start.
Research
Curriculum and Reconciliation: Introducing Indigenous Perspectives into K–12 Science
Curriculum and Reconciliation: Introducing Indigenous Perspectives into K–12 Science briefly and visually outlines the landscape of school science curricula across the country. Several jurisdictions integrate Indigenous content, perspectives, and ways of knowing, while others have yet to include references to Indigenous perspectives.
Podcast
Season 1 | Episode 4
Upskilling and Reskilling (Mid-Career Workers)
Reskilling and upskilling are now imperative for both employees and organizations to keep pace with the digital and technological innovations that are changing the way...
Featuring: Heather McIntosh, Glenda Quintini, Sashya D’Souza, Karn Singh
Podcast
Season 1 | Episode 3
Skilled Trades—Transitioning to a Digital, Green, and Human Future
Apprenticeships get a bad rap. All too often, we perpetuate negative images of the trades: dirty, low pay, and boring. These stereotypes couldn’t be further...
Featuring: Heather McIntosh, Andrew Bieler, Jeff Ranson , Jim Szautner
Podcast
Season 1 | Episode 1
Developing Social and Emotional Skills in an Automated World
We’ve all heard it before: Technology is disrupting the world of work, eliminating “low skill” jobs and harming the future of the trades. Daunting? Sure....
Featuring: Heather McIntosh, Steve Higham, Maria Giammarco, Paul Brinkhurst , Jennifer Adams
Research
Mapping the Landscape: Indigenous Skills Training and Jobs in Canada
Indigenous businesses are growing and — importantly — creating employment for others. Further, self-employment and entrepreneurship is increasing. If there is an opportunity for the next generation, and for current adult workers, to leapfrog into the future of Canadian work, it may very well be through Indigenous-led business.
Project
Facing the challenge of digital transformation in the insurance sector: women at work
Action research project on the future of female workers facing the automation of tasks in their job duties in the insurance sector.
Research
Preliminary Report: Canadians’ Shifting Outlook on Employment
An Environics Institute survey suggests COVID-19 did not dent Canadians’ outlook about the future or their confidence in their ability to bounce back quickly after hard times, even as the pandemic’s effects on employment began to be felt.
Project
CLIMB: Continuous Learning for Individuals’ Mid-career and Beyond
Mid-career workers are most vulnerable to disruption of the labour market but there is little widespread information, resources, or training to support a mid-career change.