Author: Sandra McKenzie, August 2020

Creating a Workforce Development Architecture for Canada

If anything, the “Great Pause” initiated by COVID-19 has given us time to think about the way we used to do things, and the opportunity to improve as we move forward. 

What is certain is that permanent change has taken place in the world of work.  Not every business survived the pandemic, and the businesses that have survived, haven’t necessarily emerged with the same operating model or with the same staffing requirements. This means, not all employees who were laid off, have been called back, as employers re-hire according to new realities, new working models and with new skill sets in mind.  Which all points to displaced workers needing high-quality, rapid response employment and training supports to re-enter the workforce.

Educational institutions and workforce development service providers will be called on to help individuals and employers navigate what, for many, will be uncertain times.  This means pressure on institutions and service providers that were disconnected from each other before the pandemic, and hard pressed to meet the demands of individuals and employers as we move forward. 

The bottom line is, we can’t get to where we need to go with the best laid plans of 2019.

Our workforce challenges can best be described through an analogy.  Imagine “Life as a Highway”.  We enter the main thoroughfare through the public education system, possibly proceed to some form of post-secondary education/job training and, ultimately, hopefully, connect to the workforce.   We recognize the road is not entirely direct or fair.   We know that there are gaps that need to be jumped, made wider for vulnerable populations.  We talk a lot about people having multiple careers.  We are aware that there are disruptors on the horizon and that the notion of work itself is changing.  But for the most part, our conception of the Highway of Life follows this general trajectory. 

Despite this commonly held archetype, for thousands of Canadians, the Highway of Life is marked by a series of off-ramps.  Starting in the P-12 system, continuing through to post-secondary education and on into the world of work, Canadians are exiting the Highway of Life and can’t find their way back. This group is growing and will be the source of social unrest and discontent into the future. 

Yuval Harari tells us in 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, that we are in danger of not simply maintaining an under-educated class but are in danger of creating a “useless class”.  People who are so far removed from the world of work and the benefits of society that they create an under-class. A group of people who feel left behind - angry and disenfranchised. 

What if we saw this happening and worked hard to stop it?

How do we build individual resilience, and collective well-being and prosperity, by making sure every exit from the Highway of Life connects back to an on-ramp; with express ways back to education and training linked to employment?  

How do we stop pretending the road is straight and any other experience is a bad life choice?

What if we became the country with the best system of on-ramps to the Highway of Life, no matter where you live, no matter who you are?

Straightening the Map

To date, improving the flow on the Highway of Life has focused on two primary strategies: 

·         Urging Education and Training Providers to do a better job of producing the future workforce

·         Pressing Employers to ramp up their training efforts to develop and maintain the workforce they need - current and future

Consequently, the national workforce discussion has myopically focused on improving the pipeline of training as the key to producing and improving Canada’s workforce. 

Employment Service Providers orbit Educators and Employers, supporting individuals as they search for information and advice on careers, education and training, and employment.  The Service Providers have a spider-web of funders, are often disconnected from each other, and are required to navigate between levels of government due to jurisdictional issues.  A large and complicating factor is the EI Program, a significant contributor to the funding of career services in Canada, which includes eligibility limitations as to who can receive services.  Wealthier jurisdictions top-up available career services to provide access to a broader audience, while other jurisdictions are not able to do the same.  Vulnerable populations may have access to culturally appropriate services, but they are often limited to urban areas.

The lack of a comprehensive national career development system in Canada results in piece-meal distribution of labour market and career development information, uneven quality and access to career services across the life-span, and no reliable evaluation framework to determine  whether any particular workforce project will make a measurable improvement, as compared to any other intervention. The result is churn and retention issues in post-secondary education, graduates struggling to match their degrees with employment opportunities, employers lamenting the skills mismatch and vulnerable populations continuing to experience uneven outcomes in workforce attachment and advancement.  

The prosperity of our economy is inextricably linked to the quality of our workforce.  High-quality career services lead to better informed decision-making.  Leading to higher workforce participation, lower unemployment, skills better matched to opportunities and higher career satisfaction.   This is good for the individual, but even better for society through improved mental health, gains to the tax/transfer system, higher productivity, and lower unemployment.

The bottom line is, we have to get this right to avoid the ditch.  

Exiting the Highway of Life 

There are many, many reasons, that people may find themselves traveling down an exit ramp on the Highway of Life.  Uneven life chances are a reality for many Canadians, resulting in potholes and barriers in their career path.  For others, a life event may dramatically change their trajectory.  For some people it takes time and experiences to find the right education and career path. For all these individuals, the on-ramps back to the Highway of Life need to be clearly mapped, well-lit, with guides waving flags all along the way. 

The off-ramps from the Highway of Life can be illuminated through statistics*:   

*Nova Scotian stats used as a baseline, except where noted.  Stats are highly comparable to other jurisdictions.

Public School

·         8-9% of youth leave public school without a high school diploma, with a disproportionate representation of First Nation, African-Nova Scotia, LGBTQ, and children that live in poverty

·         1 in 4 graduates have marks less than 69%: below the entrance requirements for most PSE’s, and equivalent to 25% of the future workforce.  If they are accepted to education and training, without supports, they are more likely to exit early and not complete.

·         Only 55% (2017) of the cohort that started Grade 10 Math, graduated Grade 12 with Academic Math (yet Academic Math is associated with virtually every growth sector in Canada).  Academic Math is a set of “keys” for the Highway of Life and will be the subject of a future article.

·         Many students do not have regular access to high quality career counselling. 

NEET Youth (18 – 29 Years of Age and Not in Education, Employment or Training)

·         11% of youth (15% in Nova Scotia) are in the NEET cohort, likely higher now due to COVID-19.   This represents over half a million youth in Canada with limited life chances, and a cohort that replicates every decade.

·         NEET youth are more likely than non-NEET youth to have not achieved a high school diploma (20.6% vs 6.2%), less likely to have completed a postsecondary credential (38.9% vs 53.1%), almost twice as likely to live in a household in the bottom 20% of the income distribution (40.9% vs 22.5%)

·         These youth need a customized suite of education/career/life counselling services

Post-Secondary Education and Training

·         Canadian Universities and Community Colleges have become increasingly concerned about retention rates

o   In 2019, a study done by the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission found that up to 31 per cent of students entering Maritime universities dropped out of school and did not graduate.

·         A MacLean’s study of undergraduate students looked at degree completion within seven years. In Nova Scotia all universities fell below 62%.  Most other Canadian universities did not fare better.

·         Most PSE students have no regular access to high quality career counselling advice and services.

·         Universities and Colleges struggle to ensure faculty are current on workforce trends and requirements, leading to gaps in education for graduating students.

·         All universities in Canada report increased mental health issues amongst the student population.   An Ipsos report warns more than one in four Canadians are at “high risk” of mental health issues, but millennials, women and people with low incomes are the most susceptible.

Workforce Attachment

·         Although employment prospects for graduates were good prior to the pandemic, youth increasingly face a “gig economy” meaning temp work, contract work or self-employment.  This is the new normal.  Of note, however, the onus to plan for the future (savings, pension, health benefits) has shifted to a population which has no experience in doing it.

·         Nonstandard (precarious) work is concentrated among certain demographic groups. There has been an increase in the prevalence of part-time work among 20 to 24-year old’s, particularly women.

·         There is evidence that there is a limited number of tools to address Worker Displacement particularly for workers over 45 years of age.

·         Research shows that in times of low unemployment, employers lower their hiring requirements, revealing “the skills gap” conversation to be correlated to high unemployment. This points to “the skills gap” discussion re-emerging post-COVID-19.

·         The ratio of younger workers (aged 25 to 34) to older workers (aged 55 and over) has fallen during the past 20 years. Overall, there are currently about the same number of younger and older workers, many in occupations that do not require a university degree. These workers are particularly vulnerable to disruption.

Employer Capacity

·         Less than 20% of employers have had any interaction with a training institution.

·         98% of businesses in Canada have less than 100 people and limited access to HR to assist them with hiring, training, and retention.  Many small employers do not know how to identify what their training needs are or adequately assess the options they are offered.

·         Automation will eradicate 5% of jobs but impact 75%.  Training and mentoring can support the transition, but few employers have the resources to carry out this work.

 

Unemployment and Poverty

·         The people that live in the deepest poverty in Canada are single-parent families headed by females; and, 45-64-year-old unattached, predominantly disabled, males.

·         Unemployment has surged because of the pandemic and is predicted to stay at higher levels for the foreseeable future.  Society’s challenge will be assisting new and displaced workers to find the on-ramps and re-join the Highway of Life. 

Lack of Connectivity

·         Access to information, benefits and programs, and the ability to work or stud online, requires that Canadians have a high-speed Internet connection, a working digital device or phone, digital savviness and fluency in English or French. It quickly became apparent during COVID-19 that those most at risk in terms of their health, personal security and livelihoods are also those who are least likely to be tapped into or able to afford internet services. Overwhelmingly, these are Black, Indigenous, new immigrant, refugee, and low-income communities.

·         Digital inequality is a matter of income.  Recent CRTC statistics show that the bottom quintile of the population spends up to 10% of their income on telecommunications, while the top quintile spends about 1.8% for double the service.  For some individuals and families, the cost puts access out of reach completely. 

Finding the On-Ramps

 For many people, exiting the Highway of Life is a temporary detour.  They are surrounded by a network of family and friends who can connect them to the on-ramps and help them resume their journey.  For those who lack a personal network of navigators, re-joining the Highway of Life is far more challenging.  

 Potholes and Barriers on the on-ramps include:

·         Early School Leavers 

Early School leavers represent anywhere from 6 - 10% of youth across Canada.  Youth that leave school at 16, are often re-directed back to school as their only education solution until they are 19 years of age.  Depending on life circumstances, this is an untenable solution for a significant number of youth.  The ensuing 2 -3-year hiatus, waiting to qualify for alternative education and upgrading programs, ultimately proves insurmountable for many, resulting in chronic unemployment and reliance on income support.

·         Literacy and Upgrading
Few jurisdictions have literacy and upgrading programming targeted specifically to youth. In Nova Scotia, 25% of the participants in the Nova Scotia School for Adult Learning, a program designed to facilitate high school completion, are less than 25 years of age.  This cohort would benefit from targeted responses and services, focused gap closure, and concurrent career advice.

Academic upgrading offered at Universities and Community Colleges, is often course specific and designed to fill gaps required to enter post-secondary programming.  Although these programs are vital for student advancement, they can be costly and move at a pace which is challenging for some youth who have been out of the education system for an extended period.  The cost factor is of particular concern - many students require student loans to participate in academic upgrading, resulting with them entering post-secondary education already carrying a debt burden.

·         Counseling Services

Every Province and Territory in Canada offers some form of Career Counselling and Employment Service for individuals.  It is also widely recognized that the quality of service and the suite of offerings vary widely within and across jurisdictions.  A person who has fallen off the Highway of Life may find that their income support, language training, literacy and upgrading, employment training and workforce advisory services, come from different providers who are not connected to each other. 

It is important to paus for a moment and say that there is some very good work being done at the organizational and individual level.  Over the course of my career I have been privileged to work with service providers who worked tirelessly on behalf of their clients.   But the best efforts of individual service providers can’t solve this conundrum.  

Issues of consistent quality of service, quality of advice, connectivity, and relevance is a system challenge which can’t be solved one provider at a time.

·         Immigration and Refugee Services

The challenge of providing employment services for newcomers is well-documented and complex.  However, these challenges are compounded by the lack of connectivity of programs and services along the Highway of Life.  A concrete example would be language services for high school age refugees.  In many jurisdictions, language services are provided by the education system for high-school age students.  It is also true that these services can be inadequate and uneven.  Often the highest quality language programming is offered by external service providers in the community which requires the student to miss school to attend programming.  Student face the predicament of choosing to stay in school OR attend language training.  This issue is exacerbated by federal and provincial funding rules and jurisdiction restrictions. The result can be a graduate with a diploma that includes modified outcomes, impacting further education and employment opportunities.  

·         In-School Career Counselling

Society has expectations that students will have opportunities to learn about a broad range of possible career choices and receive counselling on the appropriate education path to achieve their goals.  At the same time, the education system is challenged to meet these expectations.  Classroom teachers do not have the capacity, to know the full range of possible occupations, and guidance counsellors, already busy with crisis counselling, do not receive regular in-service training on the use of Labour Market Information or the changing world work. In addition, many youth feel the need for life experiences to inform their career choices, pointing to access to career counselling services extending beyond the public-school years.   

·         Employer Led Training

There is a general belief that employers know and can describe the workforce they need, including the skillsets of new hires and the training and upskilling requirements of their current workforce. They are called on to share this knowledge with training and post-secondary

institutions to advise on programming and curriculum to ensure graduates meet their needs.

This assumption requires validation as there are number of significant challenges associated with the reliance on employers’ capacity to inform workforce training. The preponderance of businesses in Canada are small and are challenged to meet the HR demands they are faced with today, particularly post COVID-19.  Asking these same employers to describe the graduates they need in five years is a demanding request.  Employers, particularly in companies of less than 50 people, often need support to make decisions on training and hiring or face mis-matched hiring and workforce turn-over.  

OK – so what do we do??

Developing an architecture for national career services system:

The components of a national career services systems already exists.  It just needs to be wired together so the flow of high-quality career and labour market information and resources is available to everyone, anywhere. Service providers could receive professional development. Business and industry could communicate opportunities in a coordinated, high-efficient way as opposed to one classroom, or Facebook ad at a time. Communities could customize to their economies but make sure their citizens have information on the big world of possibilities.

Building an accessible, high quality career information and counselling system, to serve every age and stage, is foundational to an effective national workforce development strategy.

The first step would be to map the current Highway of Life, including: 

o   Map the off-ramps across the education/career lifespan, including opportunities for quick returns, and interventions to prevent the exits in the first place.

o   Map the on-ramps – geographically, by population served, by eligibility criteria, and service specialties – map the gaps, dead-ends, potholes, and detours that need to be filled.

o   Chart whether the off-ramps connect to the on-ramps, if they don’t, see if there are solutions and quick fixes.  

o   Document experiences of individuals and service providers. They know how to make things better, where the system can work together to alleviate the barriers and bottlenecks.  

o   Identify opportunities for systemic collaboration, at the regional, provincial/territorial, and national level.  Be clear about who does what, but make sure all the parts work together.

o   Use the Highway of Life Roadmap to guide the design and evaluation of workforce programming and services.  Make sure new funding requests fix an off-ramp or improve an on-ramp.

o   Ideally the architecture would be supported by a “back-bone” organization to house services and supports that would benefit the whole system, including: central repositories of labour market information, high quality career information linked to education pathways, occupational profiles, sector profiles, scholarships and incentives for studies in particular fields, professional development and credentialing for career services providers, and a phone in service that can direct individuals to providers in their area.   The backbone organization must be made available to public schools and universities.

We can get there from here!

I can already hear the voices in the background!

This is a Provincial/Territorial responsibility!  The Federal government should send the funds and each jurisdiction should decide where it goes!

Let’s pause for a minute and look where that operational model has gotten us.   A disconnected, patchwork quilt of services, that most people don’t know exist.  Canada’s reliance on a myriad of disconnected systems to deliver career services, staffed by practitioners with differing capacities, supported by fragmented employer efforts, is highly problematic. 

We can do better.

Canadians don’t care whose “job” it is. They just want accessible services, when they need them, to help them move along the highway of life.  We all want that for them. 

Because we know we are stronger as a country when we all reach our full potential.

Let’s get on with it.