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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.
Young boy working on robot project
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.
September 28, 2020 34 minutes
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

September 14, 2020 35 minutes
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

August 17, 2020 31 minutes
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

Father, mother and two young children hugging
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.
Woman standing at a counter and working on their laptop
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.
Group of people collaborating
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.
Norther College lights campus from outside.
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.