Four-part plan aims to create a 'foundation stone' for knowledge economy
The Canadian Human Resources Technology Board is drafting up a plan to tackle the looming skills shortage.
The move is in response to what Bob Cook, executive director of the board, called the “alarm” raised recently among HR stakeholders about Canada’s skilled preparedness.
“We can’t let our preoccupation with today’s headlines obscure the looming reality of crises like the coming drastic skills shortage in Canada,” said Cook. “Within the next few years, 44.5 per cent of technicians and technologists in Canada will retire, creating demands for thousands in almost every sector.”
Cook said at least 120 cross-industry occupations are threatened. The board took a look at the problem at a recent conference in an effort to come up with a strategic response.
The action plan: Four main issues
The issues identified by the board at a recent conference centre on four critical areas:
•Skills development: Canada is facing “fierce demographic trends” with aggressive headhunting and poaching already a reality for technology workers. The board suggested a co-ordinated, national approach to employee development including marketing technology careers to youths, ensuring more women get involved and the creation of regionally based programs.
•Underutilization of human resources: Canada loses 50 per cent of its student body after the first year of post-secondary education, the board said, and many professionals feel they are overqualified for the work they do. The board’s plan calls for encouraging students to pursue careers in areas facing shortages and the use of an electronic tracking system to help establish skill set inventories of the existing workforce so individuals can update and maintain their own portfolio.
•Career awareness: The board said there is a severe disconnect and lack of awareness about career opportunities as a technician or technologist among youth, students, educators and parents. The board’s plan calls for the marketing and communication of career opportunities, working with educational institutions to demonstrate the benefits of careers in high-tech and to put students onto technical career paths with a special emphasis on developing opportunities for women in technology.
•Recognition of prior learning: The board said trained professionals are not recognized for their skills, which means Canada is not using the labour force to its full potential. The plan calls for addressing the barriers that create underutilization, including creating a mechanism to give people credit for the skills they learn on the job and doing a better job of recognizing the skills of foreign-trained professionals.
Cook said he hopes the end result of tackling the action plan will be a co-ordinated national plan.
“(The board) will work with others to set a time frame for successfully addressing each item,” he said. “A detailed plan will be created which will describe the activities and projects and suggest how they might be managed.”
He said creating the most highly skilled workforce Canada can muster would create a “foundation stone” for the knowledge economy.
The Canadian Technology Human Resources Board is the federal Sector Council responsible for co-ordinating the nation’s technology-based human resources planning.
The move is in response to what Bob Cook, executive director of the board, called the “alarm” raised recently among HR stakeholders about Canada’s skilled preparedness.
“We can’t let our preoccupation with today’s headlines obscure the looming reality of crises like the coming drastic skills shortage in Canada,” said Cook. “Within the next few years, 44.5 per cent of technicians and technologists in Canada will retire, creating demands for thousands in almost every sector.”
Cook said at least 120 cross-industry occupations are threatened. The board took a look at the problem at a recent conference in an effort to come up with a strategic response.
The action plan: Four main issues
The issues identified by the board at a recent conference centre on four critical areas:
•Skills development: Canada is facing “fierce demographic trends” with aggressive headhunting and poaching already a reality for technology workers. The board suggested a co-ordinated, national approach to employee development including marketing technology careers to youths, ensuring more women get involved and the creation of regionally based programs.
•Underutilization of human resources: Canada loses 50 per cent of its student body after the first year of post-secondary education, the board said, and many professionals feel they are overqualified for the work they do. The board’s plan calls for encouraging students to pursue careers in areas facing shortages and the use of an electronic tracking system to help establish skill set inventories of the existing workforce so individuals can update and maintain their own portfolio.
•Career awareness: The board said there is a severe disconnect and lack of awareness about career opportunities as a technician or technologist among youth, students, educators and parents. The board’s plan calls for the marketing and communication of career opportunities, working with educational institutions to demonstrate the benefits of careers in high-tech and to put students onto technical career paths with a special emphasis on developing opportunities for women in technology.
•Recognition of prior learning: The board said trained professionals are not recognized for their skills, which means Canada is not using the labour force to its full potential. The plan calls for addressing the barriers that create underutilization, including creating a mechanism to give people credit for the skills they learn on the job and doing a better job of recognizing the skills of foreign-trained professionals.
Cook said he hopes the end result of tackling the action plan will be a co-ordinated national plan.
“(The board) will work with others to set a time frame for successfully addressing each item,” he said. “A detailed plan will be created which will describe the activities and projects and suggest how they might be managed.”
He said creating the most highly skilled workforce Canada can muster would create a “foundation stone” for the knowledge economy.
The Canadian Technology Human Resources Board is the federal Sector Council responsible for co-ordinating the nation’s technology-based human resources planning.
