3. The future of employment

Recommendations 3. The Future of Employment

Pre-COVID-19, employers across Ontario were finding it increasingly difficult to locate enough candidates with the right skillsets. The rapidly changing labour market has led to a need for constant upskilling and reskilling, an emphasis on work-integrated learning, and a growing demand for data and digital skillsets. The pandemic has accelerated and amplified these trends. Many companies will rely on automation to reduce risk and improve productivity as they recover from the crisis, and Ontarians will need responsive skills training programs to get them back to work. Economic competitiveness will require both employers and workers to adjust to the new realities of employment. Workforce development is especially important for SMEs, which often lack the resources to develop internal training programs and have been profoundly impacted by the current crisis.

a.

Incentivize collaboration around workforce development.

As skills training becomes a lifelong process, partnerships between post-secondary institutions, employers, and unions will play a growing role in responding to labour market needs. However, current responsibility for workforce development is dispersed across a patchwork of stakeholders from both the public and private sectors. The Government of Ontario can play an important role in establishing incentives for collaboration and leadership on this file.

Experiential learning programs – including but not limited to work-integrated learning, co-operative education, and internships – are one of the ways in which partnerships can help align skills development with the employment market. The Province should explore options to incentivize greater participation from employers, especially SMEs and businesses in remote regions. This could involve expanding the Co-operative Education Tax Credit and/or offering a tax credit to employers who hire graduates of co-operative education, or equivalent programs, that allows employers to claim a percentage of salaries for the first year of graduates’ full-time employment. Business-facing ministries within the government should also help promote new and existing experiential learning opportunities and communicate their benefits.

Another way to incentivize collaboration is through partnership-focused grants. For example, the Strategic Skills Initiative (SSI) was a former Ontario program that leveraged partnerships between industry and training providers to accelerate the development of skills deemed most critical to the future economy.9 We recommend investing $50 million over three years to implement a modernized version of the initiative. Funding could be funneled towards projects that train students in skills needed to adapt to technological change experienced by SMEs, such as data science, with a focus on work-integrated learning. Eligible applicants would be post-secondary institutions with evidence of strong partnerships and involvement with SMEs, and program funding would primarily be used to procure enabling equipment, such as software, virtual reality tools, simulators, and upgrades to existing facilities. The program could be targeted strategically towards specific communities and sectors to align with broader economic recovery objectives.

b.

Accelerate post-pandemic reskilling.

Reskilling is essential to the rapid re-employment of workers that were displaced during the COVID-19 crisis, particularly given the permanent restructuring expected in hard-hit sectors such as retail, hospitality, and tourism. In collaboration with the federal government, training institutions, and employers, the Government of Ontario should continue to support and scale successful reskilling initiatives, similar to their programming on the skilled trades. One option is to introduce a temporary program to support on-the-job workforce training. The Quebec government recently implemented a $100 million program to help companies train workers and continue paying those undergoing training. The Concerted Action Program for Maintaining Employment covers a range of training purposes, including digital skills training, training recommended by professional orders, training necessary for the resumption of company activities, and training related to a strategy for adjusting company activities in the context of economic uncertainty related to COVID-19. Due to the ambiguity around what technical skills will be needed as the labour market demands continue to shift, an Ontario version of this program could be adapted to include core universal skills such as communication, critical thinking, business acumen, and financial literacy. Additionally, creating a common understanding and validation of micro-credentials for employers through the development of a micro-credential framework will allow for provincial and federal funds to be flowed through Employment Ontario to support short-term micro-credential programs that meet local and sectoral needs. Employment Ontario has specific, pre-existing programs at its disposal that could be helpful, such as Second Career, which is designed for displaced workers and delivered by public and private colleges. Colleges have many Program Advisory Committees composed of employers that could help identify relevant skills.

c.

Adopt a diversity lens to reskilling.

COVID-19 has had a disproportionate economic impact on women, lower-income workers, visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, and other underrepresented segments of our labour market. This is concerning because the evidence is clear: diversity and inclusion lead to higher workforce productivity and economic growth. Going forward, it is imperative that Ontario adopt a diversity lens to every workforce development initiative to ensure disadvantaged groups are not left further behind during recovery. In many cases, this will require addressing specific barriers to participation (including financial, informational, geographic, or otherwise). With regard to financial capacity, the Ontario government can partner with the private sector to support low-interest loans and training scholarships. It is important to ensure Ontarians in rural and remote regions are also aware of available opportunities and able to access them in person and/or virtually. Additionally, many mothers will not be able to participate in training opportunities unless they have access to child care. In the short-term, subsidies for licensed or at-home child care will be critical to ensuring women can participate in training and re-employment in the early months of economic recovery.

Strengthen labour market information.

A primary concern for employers is the lack of comprehensive local- and occupational-level labour market information (LMI). Existing data is not granular enough to demonstrate precisely where labour is needed within regions or which specific skills are in demand, and survey results are often aggregated into a small number of industries, which masks dissimilarities between individual occupations. Further, information is not always coordinated or shared in an easily accessible manner for employers, job seekers, and decisionmakers. There is also a lack of coordination between the provincial and federal governments. LMI deficiencies risk unnecessarily hindering economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. In Budget 2019, the Province announced a plan to launch an enhanced LMI website; however, we caution against initiatives that are duplicative of private and public sector initiatives that aim to better connect job seekers with employers and provide meaningful LMI insight such as Magnet, LinkedIn, and the Labour Market Information Council. The OCC encourages the Government of Ontario to: • Work with the federal government, businesses, and the education sector, on an intergovernmental strategy to establish a new governance framework to address deficiencies in the quality and sharing of LMI and one that aims to create a set of common performance measures for program evaluation; • Enhance the timeliness of LMI by extracting it from the wealth of data already collected from Canadians for other purposes, such as income taxes and social assistance programs, while ensuring the protection of private information; • Advocate for the collection of more granular LMI and localized data in all future federal surveys on labour vacancies; • Promote existing LMI more actively and enhance public awareness of what is available; and • Enhance interprovincial collaboration on LMI and consider the establishment of a cross-ministry committee to improve coordination on LMI efforts.

e.

Give colleges more autonomy over course offerings.

To adapt to a quickly changing labour market, colleges in Ontario need more flexibility to respond to employers’ needs in a timely manner, particularly by developing micro-credentials and other demand-driven programming.10 Specifically, the Government of Ontario should allow for in-program changes without prior consent from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities and focus on taking a risk-based approach to evaluate quality according to predetermined frameworks.11

10 Mitchell Davidson and Shiv Ruparell. 2020. The Future of Ontario’s Workers. StrategyCorp. https://strategycorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Colleges-Ontario-The-Future-of-Ontarios-Workers-White-Paper-June-2020.pdf. 11 Ibid.

f.

Address regional labour market needs with flexible trades certification programs.

While access to talent is a challenge for businesses across Ontario, finding enough skilled workers can be especially difficult for businesses in rural communities and smaller urban centres. Flexible trade certification programs will be especially valuable during economic recovery when many workers will be in need of reskilling and large-scale infrastructure investments will create new opportunities in the trades. First, the OCC recommends the Government of Ontario implement a three-year pilot project that would allow SMEs in rural communities to apply for an apprenticeship ratio increase on a per-project basis. A similar program exists in Nova Scotia, where requests are evaluated based on a series of criteria, including the geographic location of the employer and steps undertaken by the employer to hire more journeypersons. Data from this pilot should be evaluated and used to inform future programs and policies. More broadly, the government should develop a process to certify creative trades training programs based on demonstrated regional and/or sectoral needs. Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, Training, and Skills Development should develop a standardized application process to encourage businesses and communities to develop programs that respond to demonstrated labour market needs. Bruce County’s Nuclear Innovation Institute – a new initiative which aims to create a regional talent pipeline in current and future industries with an emphasis on youth, underemployed workers, and Indigenous communities – is an example of the kind of creative, locally adapted solution Ontario needs to meet current and future demand for skills.