Future Skills Centre tackles ongoing skills shortage

The Future Skills Centre (FSC) is spending $19 million to expand 13 projects that help retrain and upskill jobseekers as it takes aim at the growing skilled labour shortage and widening skills-to-jobs mismatch existing in several industry segments, including construction.

The goal, says the organization, is to meet evolving workplace demands in a number of key sectors, and to include new and diverse labour market participants, particularly those who have been underserved such as women, immigrants, and Indigenous peoples.

Included in the programs receiving support is a virtual recruitment system for the unionized construction industry. The free online platform offers resources and career advice. Active workers and job seekers can use it to explore apprenticeships and careers in the skilled construction trades, as well as connect to an online assessment, learning tools and resources.

The first-of-its-kind digital recruitment system is led by SkillPlan and Canada’s Building Trades Unions to accelerate the recruitment and training of traditionally underrepresented individuals to match the needs of the unionized construction industry across Canada.

“The Future Skills Centre is committed to accelerating innovative practices in skills development in order to help the squeeze many industries are feeling across Canada,” stated Pedro Barata, executive director of Future Skills Centre. “These project partners have demonstrated a drive to test, learn and find promising approaches that will help workers, employers and industries adapt and thrive in the economy of the future.”

www.fsc-ccf.ca