Wendy Cukier
Founder and Academic Director, Diversity Institute and Research Academic Director, Future Skills Centre
Canada’s workforce is evolving. Addressing skill gaps through inclusive upskilling and employer-driven strategies is essential for future growth.
Canada’s economy is being buffeted by converging global trends: technology transformation, environmental crises, global war for talent and lagging productivity.
Attracting and retaining talent remains one of the most important challenges to meet these global trends head-on. While we need a strong and responsive post-secondary system, we also need ways to respond quickly to changing demands. New and innovative approaches to upskilling and reskilling are critical. And we need to focus on effectively defining, assessing and utilizing skills as job descriptions and classifications are increasingly inconsistent and obsolete.
The Diversity Institute (DI), with the Government of Canada supported Future Skills Centre (FSC) and its partners, is working to anticipate trends and their impacts on the labour market. It is working with employers to better address gaps, mismatches and emerging needs and with workers, and job seekers, and service providers to better understand gaps, opportunities, and what works for whom, in order to strengthen Canada’s skills and employment ecosystem.
Digitization was accelerated by COVID-19 and is transforming sectors. New AI applications are finally gaining traction, but Canadian companies still lag behind. Recent research from Deloitte shows that about one quarter (26 per cent) of surveyed organizations had launched one or more AI implementations in Canada, compared with 34 per cent globally. Our multi-year Survey on Employment and Skills of more than 5000 Canadians conducted by Environics Institute, suggests that Canadian employees may be outpacing their employers in terms of AI in some sectors. Three in ten employed Canadians say they are using AI programs to help with tasks at work, with little evidence of the usual gender gap. For those who use AI at work, most say it has made them more productive (81 per cent) while 71 per cent say it has made them more creative.
Generative AI and other “low code, no code” applications are starting to level the playing field for STEM and non-STEM graduates. Prompt engineering requires facility with language not coding — “the English major’s revenge” — and has the potential to transform jobs across functions and sectors. It is likely to displace some workers and create new opportunities for others but has rapidly become one of the highest in demand digital skills noted in recent research. A shift from employer led to employee-led upskilling is in some ways encouraging, showing commitments to lifelong learning among workers — but also introduces major risks when employees use such tools without guidance, training, or awareness of their limitations.
Using the Advanced Digital and Professional Training (ADaPT) model — DI is able to quickly respond to employer needs.
And we have to recognize, not all employers have the capacity to invest in training and development for their existing workers or to tap into diverse talent pools to meet their needs. Small and medium-enterprises (SMEs), particularly hard hit by COVID-19, are struggling to survive and lack the resources needed to upskill and reskill their workforces, adopt new processes and tools and attract and retain increasingly diverse workers. To address these issues, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, Magnet and DI are working through Future Skills Centre to develop a shared platform — Skills Bridge — which builds economies of scale for SMEs to gain access to relevant training, talent and tools. Skills Bridge responds to specific demands for general skills development, management, leadership and entrepreneurial skills, digital skills,(including AI), ‘green’ skills and skills to advance human resources practices. It also provides support to create more inclusive workplaces by developing and creating resources and helping SMEs navigate their options. To date, more than 1000 employees from 861 companies and 55 Chambers of Commerce across the country have participated in the program. They report significant improvement in skills areas like management, numeracy, innovation, problem-solving, adaptability, entrepreneurship, digital skills, and writing, as well as equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).
Using the Advanced Digital and Professional Training (ADaPT) model — DI is able to quickly respond to employer needs. Building on its research with FSC, as well as the seven-year study Bridging the Technology Skills Gap: New Evidence-Based Approaches to Leveraging Diversity and Inclusion, supported by the Government of Ontario, DI has developed taxonomies and competency frameworks for digital skills (and specifically AI skills) entrepreneurial skills, green skills, and EDI skills. These frameworks take into account varying levels of understanding and provide ways to define, assess, and develop skills across industries and job classification. As noted, while digital skills are most often associated with STEM disciplines, research shows that there is an insatiable demand for deep technology skills, but these are required for only a small fraction of jobs. Many more roles require people with the skills needed to mediate between technology and organizations — to define opportunities, functional requirements and support implementation or to use advanced digital tools that do not require a computer science degree but do require an understanding of business goals, context and organizational processes. Even more widespread is the demand for digital (and AI) literacy. A similar taxonomy is emerging for green skills. While green tech and science are still critically important, there is increasing demand for people who can support transforming business processes, products and services with an eye to sustainability as well as basic “green” literacy for all employees to shape their individual knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours if we are to achieve our transition goals.
To date, a range of ADaPT programs have been developed to meet the needs of specific industry sectors, employers and job-seeking populations. Driven by specific employer needs and short-term upskilling with wrap-around supports, the program has trained more than 1100 young people with a 90 per cent employment placement rate over the last two years. Through FSC, ADaPT has tested different modes of delivery – both asynchronous and synchronous — as well as the impact of various wrap-around and placement supports showing promising results overall and particularly for newcomers and women and youth facing barriers. Supported by the Government of Ontario, for example, ADaPT for Black Youth engaged almost 300 young people in developing their digital skills. The program was a win for the youth but also employers. Of the employers responding to the impact survey, 100 per cent felt that ADaPT for Black Youth participants met or exceeded their expectations, and 85 per cent of these employers noted that as a result of providing work placements their organizations improved their business outcomes.
Fundamental to our work with FSC is the recognition that we cannot strengthen the skills and employment system by focusing only on job seekers and workers. We also need to transform the processes and approaches of employers, and particularly SMEs, towards talent recruitment, selection, advancement and retention. Our research shows clearly that internationally educated professionals, women, racialized, and particularly Black people, Indigenous people, those with disabilities and those who identify as 2SLGBTQ+ face barriers at every stage of their education and employment journeys. The data are well known — people with “foreign sounding” last names are 30 per cent less likely to get call backs for interviews compared to others with similar qualifications. Women are still under-employed and paid less than men doing similar work. Black people with university education are twice as likely to be in jobs requiring high school as others. And university graduates with severe disabilities have worse employment outcomes than high school drop outs. The Environics survey again produced disappointing results of reported experience of workplace discrimination by all of these groups. Shockingly, the rates of reported discrimination were highest in the non-profit sector, followed by government and then the private sector. Therefore, a core focus of DI’s work with FSC and employers and associations across the country is to find ways to do better by strengthening commitments to EDI and the tools and techniques needed to create healthier and more inclusive workplaces. To date, more than 300 SMEs, for example, have developed strategies to advance EDI using the free Diversity Assessment Tool, supported by a data base of more than 1000 best practices, and the preliminary results are encouraging. What is especially critical is the continued widespread recognition that the commitments to EDI are critical to the success of business, to bridging the talent gaps and meeting the changing needs of more diverse customers.
Along with the Future Skills Centre and partners, the Diversity Institute is providing evidence-based tools and support to strengthen the skills and employment ecosystem to meet the current and future needs of employers and Canadians.
To learn more visit torontomu.ca/diversity
