Aligning Skill Development to Labour Market Need

Aligning Skills Development With Labour Market Need builds on the Centre for Skills and Post-Secondary Education’s (SPSE) foundational report, Skills?Where Are We Today: The State of Skills and PSE in Canada. A key finding of that report was that the “literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills of Canadian adults are less impressive than one might expect for a country with a high level of post-secondary participation and attainment.” Aligning Skills Development explores the contradiction of mounting levels of educational attainment coexisting with weak alignment between skills and labour market needs. Understanding this paradox and possible solutions involve an analysis of Canada’s skills development system. The report considers the critical role of Canada’s labour market information systems, the way employers articulate their skills demands to prospective employees, and the education system that is expected to develop these skills.