Canada is well known globally for abundant natural resources which have been a driving force of our economy for centuries. But we are also well known for another vital resource — knowledge capital, driven largely by our world leading education systems and ability to attract the best and brightest from around the world.
But this capital is under-utilized. As Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland recently put it, the “Achilles heel” of our economy is productivity and innovation. In a recent OECD report, Canada ranked last among member nations in terms of real GDP growth per capita, projected from 2021 to 2060.
Skills development for workers is a critical component to grow productivity. Canadian businesses invest only 50 cents per worker for every dollar invested by American businesses. More broadly, too many jobs in high-growth Canadian sectors, like tech, are going unfilled while workers who’d like to make the jump can’t figure out how to do so.
As Canada recovers from the pandemic, this skills challenge is taking centre stage. But there are clear pathways to progress. Unlike in a labour shortage, where the challenging solution is to try to increase supply, skills under-utilization and mis-matching allows for the use of light-touch, flexible, nimble, and industry-driven solutions. This is because, in many cases, a successful match between a job seeker and a job can be made with relatively minor additions to an individual’s skill set.
Furthermore, with the right approaches and vision to solving for skills under-utilization, we can tap into the pools of talent often overlooked — notably within equity-deserving communities, including women, newcomers and individuals who identify as BIPOC. Tapping into these talent pools allows us to deliver growth and innovation potential to businesses and the economy writ large, and deliver it in a more inclusive fashion.
But this approach demands that we break long-held orthodoxies about hiring, and who is a good fit for what role. For too long we’ve used credentials as the marker for fit. That means roles are going unfilled because a company can’t find a candidate with the right kind of degree, not realizing that with the right kind of rapid upskilling, a candidate with an adjacent background might be an even better fit.
Take for example a software firm in need of sales professionals. It’s on the hunt for talent with a background in software. But a huge untapped talent pool resides in the retail industry — natural sales professionals who could become the right fit for a tech organization with the right short-burst training.
At Palette we are doing exactly this — filling roles at high-growth firms with talent from often-overlooked backgrounds by delivering custom training that leverages the skill sets job seekers already have.
We’ve piloted our model with employers in high-growth firms across the knowledge economy, largely in the Waterloo-Toronto innovation corridor and the results are impressive. Not only are we helping firms access the talent they need, but that talent is thriving. Nearly 40 percent of those whom Palette has helped find new roles get promoted within 18 months.
Our model — using industry-designed rapid upskilling — is applicable to nearly all sectors. Take for example the need to transition to a net-zero economy, a central goal of the federal government. The transition will create new opportunities in areas like electric vehicle production and battery supply chains. As new jobs are created in manufacturing in Southern Ontario and in lithium mining and production in Québec, existing talent pools can tap into these employment opportunities through rapid upskilling programs. Workers from the fossil fuel industry, most importantly, have an immense repertoire of skills transferable to other roles, including those in the green economy.
What’s needed to close the loop is short-burst training, with employers in the driver’s seat, providing workers with targeted upskilling that builds on their existing competencies. The transition from oil production to renewable grid, as one key example, will be easier with employers, educators and Palette at the table together.
Canada’s economy is evolving. Employers need the right talent to drive it forward. Canada isn’t in short supply of talent but we do need to reconsider how we think about talent, and about who might be a good fit for the jobs of today and tomorrow.
Canada’s future prosperity – and our ability to build an economy that benefits all Canadians, and does so more equitably — depends on it. Rhonda Barnet is the Chief Executive Officer of Palette Skills AJ Tibando is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Palette Skills
Rhonda Barnet is the Chief Executive Officer of Palette Skills
AJ Tibando is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Palette Skills
