Workers considering a career change need to better understand how to capitalize on their current skills, education, abilities, experience, and knowledge. Similarly, human resource professionals, educational institutions, and labour market policy-makers need a better sense of what skills, education, abilities, experience, and knowledge characteristics make someone more employable, today and in the future.

Impact paper  |  25-min read
March 16, 2021
Focus Area—Education & Skills

Employment in Canada is going to look different in the future. The types of education, abilities, skills, and experiences that employers seek are evolving amid a confluence of forces reshaping the nature of work around the world. Disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics, unmanned vehicles, and the Internet of Things, the growing share of knowledge-based services, and the rise of technology-enabled platforms will reshape careers.

Primer  |  20-min read
March 16, 2021
Focus Area—Education & Skills

Employment declines in occupations that involve routine tasks have been under way for decades. However, it is unclear how advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics will impact local economies. As some occupations and industries are more vulnerable to automation than others, and regional economies have different occupational and industry mixes, regions may experience the impact of automation differently.

Issue briefing  |  15-min read
March 15, 2021
Focus Area—Innovation & Technology

Canadian industries have experienced rapid technological change with the advent of several transformative innovations over the past decade. Different technologies pose different re-skilling and occupational transition challenges across industries. Business leaders need to be mindful of which technology they adopt.

Impact paper  |  20-min read
January 28, 2021
Focus area—Innovation & Technology

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.

Summary for executives  |  4-min read
January 25, 2021
Focus area—Education & Skills

Beyond what institutions are saying, we also wanted to understand what they are doing to develop student SES. Post-secondary activities that promote SES development fall into two categories: extra-curricular or embedded within programs and curricula. We scanned PSI program and departmental websites to find examples from across Canada.

Issue briefing  |  15-min read
January 21, 2021
Focus area—Education & Skills

To stay competitive in the wake of COVID-19, Canadian businesses will need talent with practical experience and future-relevant skills. One of the most promising ways to do this is by expanding access to work-integrated learning (WIL).

Online experience  |  8-min read
January 13, 2021
Focus area—Education & Skills

Industries are shifting to become more automated, connected, and diverse—with a heavy reliance on digital tools and platforms. These barriers need to be removed so Canadian tradespeople can easily upgrade their skills to be reflective of industry needs.

Online experience  |  3-min read
December 14, 2020
Focus Area—Education & Skills

In fall 2019 and spring 2020, The Conference Board of Canada on behalf of the Future Skills Centre spoke with 857 skills, training, and education stakeholders across Canada. The goal was to understand the challenges and opportunities facing different regions.

Report-back  |  4-min read
December 9, 2020
Focus Area—Education & Skills

The transition from high school to post-secondary education (PSE) is a time of uncertainty for many students. Educational, cultural, and economic challenges make this transition even more complex for Indigenous learners transferring into PSE in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Issue briefing  |  14-min read
December 9, 2020
Focus Area—Indigenous & Northern Communities

In response to a national conversation about reconciliation, governments, the formal education system, and non-profit organizations are wanting to address educational gaps and improve the representation of Indigenous peoples in STEM with extra attention and resources. This awareness, combined with an increasing focus on equity issues in STEM, has increased efforts to bring STEM outreach to Indigenous students.

Impact paper  |  25-min read
December 9, 2020
Focus Area—Indigenous & Northern Communities

Indigenous Institutes play an essential role in helping Indigenous peoples—Canada’s fastest-growing population prepare for the labour market. And they bring a distinctly Indigenous lens to higher education. Many are looking for ways to support Indigenous learners and provide culturally safe spaces for learning and research.

Online experience  |  8-min read
December 7, 2020
Focus area—Indigenous & Northern Communities

The demand for social and emotional skills (SES) is growing. But few reliable tools are available to measure SES in adolescents and adults, and it can be difficult to figure out which existing tools are best. Also, there’s little consensus among researchers and practitioners on how to best define and measure SES.

Online experience  |  8-min read
November 10, 2020
Focus area—Education & Skills

The Indigenous population in Canada is younger and growing more rapidly than any other socio-demographic segment in the country. Expanding resource development opportunities and increasing recognition of Indigenous rights are creating unique economic opportunities for Indigenous peoples.

Impact paper  |  32-min read
October 15, 2020
Focus area—Indigenous & Northern Communities

Tradespeople identified seven core 21st-century digital skills that are needed to adapt to the future of the trades. These skills require knowledge of digital tools and interact with both trade-specific technical knowledge and social/emotional skills, which evolve over a person’s lifespan.

Summary for executives  |  4-min read
September 15, 2020
Focus area—Education & Skills

Tradespeople will need a range of new digital skills to keep pace with the future of work. These are the technical and non-technical skills needed to thrive in digitally connected workplaces. The next generation of tradespeople will need them to operate computerized equipment, access blueprints on digital devices, and use digital diagnostic tools, among other tasks.

Impact paper  |  30-min read
September 15, 2020
Focus area—Education & Skills

When educators use a culturally responsive curriculum—one that bridges Indigenous ways of knowing with Western science—Indigenous students are more engaged and perform better.

Primer  |  40-min read
June 11, 2020
Focus area—Indigenous & Northern Communities

Economic growth in Canada’s North has outpaced the rest of the country. This primer discusses the challenges still faced by Indigenous people in the North, who continue to experience socio-economic disparities.

Primer  |  25-min read
June 9, 2020
Focus area—Indigenous & Northern Communities

To shape Canada’s future economy and build Indigenous communities across the country, we need more Indigenous people in finance and management roles in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations.

Online experience  |  4-min read
June 4, 2020
Focus area—Indigenous & Northern Communities

In an era of lightning-fast technological change, it’s more important than ever that Canadian leaders understand how the adoption of new technologies will impact Canada’s labour force.

Online experience  |  8-min read
May 28, 2020
Focus area—Canadian Economics

More and more, employers require new hires who possess not only specialized knowledge and technical skills, but also social and emotional or “human” skills.

Summary for executives  |  4-min read
April 29, 2020
Focus area—Education & Skills

Demand for skilled employees is not new, but the skills considered “in demand” have evolved. While developing skills is a life-long endeavour, the skills that Canadians learn through post-secondary training are key to workplace success. But demand for social and emotional skills (SES) is growing.

Online experience  |  8-min read
April 8, 2020
Focus area—Education & Skills

The revolution is being sparked by automation, low-carbon economies, digitization, and other emerging work trends. These new technologies need skills that are not usually at the core of a trade school education.

Online experience  |  8-min read
April 8, 2020
Focus area—Canadian Economics

The most in-demand skills for today’s and tomorrow’s labour market aren’t technical—they’re social and emotional. Academic research and industry surveys on skills needs indicate that social and emotional skills (SES), or human skills, are critical for employability and career success. But are Canada’s education and training systems doing enough to prepare students for work?

Impact paper  |  38-min read
March 31, 2020
Focus area—Education & Skills

In 1972 the Assembly of First Nations—launched a movement by First Nations to reclaim control of their education. Fifty years on, many forms of Indigenous-centred post-secondary education (PSE) exist in Canada. All of them aspire to help Indigenous students succeed.

Online experience  |  8-min read
March 26, 2020
Focus area—Indigenous & Northern Communities

About 4 per cent of Canadian adults are Indigenous. But less than 2 per cent of people working in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupations are. Improving Indigenous participation and leadership in major economic sectors, such as science, technology, and finance, is an important part of the reconciliation journey.

Online experience  |  8-min read
March 26, 2020
Focus area—Indigenous & Northern Communities

How can we close employment and income gaps in Inuit Nunangat? Canada’s North is booming. But not all in the North are seeing benefits. In Canada, there are consistent gaps in both employment and income between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations.

Online experience  |  8-min read
March 26, 2020
Focus area—Indigenous & Northern Communities

The skills that workers need are changing thanks to automation and new technologies. That means it’s more important than ever to find reliable ways to identify the gaps between the skills workers have and the skills employers need, and how those gaps will change over time.

Online experience  |  8-min read
March 24, 2020
Focus area—Canadian Economics