Canada has more than a labour shortage challenge. The deeper issue facing the country’s employers, industries and, ultimately, its economy is a skills shortage. That comes down to cultivating the right workforce skill sets to meet the rapidly shifting needs of the 21st century job market.
For Canada, the gap in that supply and demand is now a multibillion-dollar equation that is far more complex than accelerating trades training or updating technical certifications.
Employers today need more sophisticated sets of skills, not just more workers.
According to estimates from the Conference Board of Canada and the Future Skills Centre, the unrealized value of that unfilled skills demand for the Canadian economy hit $25 billion in 2020. That is up from $15 billion in 2015 and, according to a recent briefing from the two organizations, is the equivalent of 1.3 per cent of the country’s GDP.
Lost Opportunities: Measuring the Unrealized Value of Skill Vacancies in Canada concludes that the six most highly valued skill vacancies are active listening, critical thinking, reading comprehension, speaking, monitoring and co-ordination.
At the other end of the value scale for skills vacancies are “task and technically oriented skills” such as operations analysis, operations and control and equipment maintenance.
Market demand for social and emotional skills is rising, as is the value they bring to job performance and corporate success.
But developing skill sets that emphasize active listening and critical thinking have not traditionally been cultivated or promoted in Canada’s public education system.
Nor does that system invest enough resources in creating avenues for future training and education in the skills – emotional and practical – that the country’s economy needs. Helping ensure that more young people have the skills and technical resources that give them the best chance to succeed should be the top priority of any public education system.
But Canada has yet to earn a passing grade in that critical arena.
