Building a Skillful Workforce 

To meet emerging economic challenges, Canada must turn its attention to building a highly skilled workforce and supporting a culture of lifelong learning in our communities. Our long-term wellbeing depends on it.

Travel through western Canada reveals help wanted signs everywhere. Meanwhile, in central Canada times are a little tougher. Traditional blue collar jobs such as auto manufacturing are shrinking and disappearing. On the east coast, some are worried about a brain drain with the region’s best and brightest moving elsewhere.

As economists look ahead, they predict a fundamental sea change. Boomers will begin retiring in ever-increasing numbers. Severe shortages of highly skilled workers loom ahead. So how can we meet these challenges? That’s the question CGA-Canada has been posing in a series of round table consultations in recent months. The key questions we’re exploring include:

• Have the current partnerships between government, business, and labour been effective?
• What kind of assistance, if any, should government provide for workplace learning?
• How can barriers be lowered for Aboriginal Canadians?
• What role can the private sector play?
• What should the role of employers and professional associations be?

Many of us are coming to realize just how big the negative impact of low skill levels will be on our economic health. Yet compelling return on investment metrics are hard to come by. And to date, private sector investments in job training and continuing education are just scratching the surface.

Governments and the private sector may realize the need in principle, but are they acting fast enough? The emerging consensus is that much more can be done than is being done now. Canada has been somewhat sheltered from the recent U.S. economic downturn, but that could be short-lived if Canada doesn’t put the fundamentals in place.

In our fast paced economic climate, today’s good news could be gone tomorrow. Supporting a culture of highly skilled and job-ready Canadians can cushion us from the certain shocks ahead.

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