This week's big news is that the federal government has launched an online questionnaire to gather input on building a modern 21st-century workforce. This is an excellent opportunity for our sector, which is both highly trained and practically informed, to provide valuable insights. What makes this consultation even more significant is that ASPECT, along with some of our members, other umbrella organizations, employer associations, and various trusts and foundations, were invited to participate by the Employment and Labour Market Services Division of the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction.
Readers of Aspectives are in a unique position that enables you to provide invaluable feedback. Your connections to individuals seeking employment services, those ineligible for services, people facing employment barriers, and employers of all sizes in your communities, give you a perspective that is highly valuable for this survey.
I have not rushed through the survey on behalf of ASPECT. It requires careful consideration and time. I plan to review the pre-survey discussion paper meticulously and consider feedback from across the province and Canada. This will ensure that the responses are of high quality and align with the call for a national employment strategy I mentioned in my blog two weeks ago.
In the meantime, here are some resources and a complete list of the survey questions. Please review them and, if possible, respond to the survey. Once completed, I'll share ASPECT's responses with ASPECT members. The survey deadline is September 30th.
Resources:
Pre-Survey:
You need to read either the full Discussion Paper or the Summary before starting the survey. In both you’ll find out that the Government of Canada has identified three priorities to “foster a modern, diverse, inclusive and productive 21st-century labour market:”
- Priority one: Ensuring better alignment between workforce strategies, training institutions, labour groups, employers and economic priorities
- Priority two: Eliminating inefficiencies and barriers in Canadian labour markets
- Priority three: Maximizing labour productivity through strategic skills development and lifelong learning
Online Questionnaire at a Glance:
- Are there are other areas of focus that should be included? Please explain
- What do you or your organization consider to be the most critical areas of focus to foster a modern, inclusive and productive labour market?
- What do you consider to be the strengths of the Canadian approach to workforce development and opportunities for growth?
- Are there barriers to workforce development that the Government of Canada could or should remove?
- What is one thing that the Government of Canada could do to improve labour mobility?
- Are there existing workforce training models or partnerships that work well within Canada or in other jurisdictions? Please provide a brief description of each example.
- Business and employers play a vital role to support training. What supports do they need to remove barriers and increase their involvement?
- What tools can government use to incentivize more on-the-job training across the economy?
- How to better integrate upskilling and reskilling in our modern economy?
- How can the Government of Canada support job seekers to fill existing job vacancies?
- How can government, business and labour work together to increase productivity?
- How can organizations better integrate artificial intelligence to enhance productivity, while being mindful of potential job displacements?
- Describe possible supply-side investments governments can make to improve productivity.
- Please feel free to provide any additional input.
When you are ready to complete the survey, click here.
Janet Morris-Reade, CEO
ASPECT BC
