Cannexus22 Virtual | Virtuel

In response to the pandemic, NPower Canada pivoted its approach to employer engagement, shifting their partnership cultivation efforts toward the industry segments and types of companies that continued to hire digital talent. As a result of these pivots, NPower Canada has continued to achieve its 80% post-program job placement success target, and developed new, more agile employer engagement practices.

Learning Outcomes:

• Employer engagement during a pandemic
• Understanding evolving employer needs
• Refining workforce development programs to support improved employment outcomes

En réponse à la pandémie, NPower Canada a modifié son approche de l’engagement des employeurs, en orientant ses efforts de partenariat vers les segments industriels et les types d’entreprises qui continuent d’embaucher des talents dans le domaine des technologies numériques. Grâce à cette réorientation, NPower Canada a continué à atteindre son objectif de 80 % de réussite en matière de placement après le programme, en plus d’établir de nouvelles pratiques plus souples en matière d’engagement des employeurs.

Objectifs d’apprentissage :

• L’engagement des employeurs durant une pandémie      
• Comprendre l’évolution des besoins des employeurs     
• Affiner les programmes de développement de la main-d’œuvre afin de favoriser de meilleurs résultats en matière d’emploi     

Skills for Success is an initiative announced in the federal 2021 budget to help create foundational and transferable skills training opportunities for Canadians. This initiative will help Canadians meet on-the-job skills demands in the current and future labour market. This represents the largest historical investment ($298 million over three years) by the federal government in foundational and transferable skills training.

Learning Outcomes:

• Exploring how Skills for Success responds to employers' skills needs
• How to efficiently reach and upskill under-represented groups
• Examining the requirements for becoming a Skills for Success practitioner

Children's Aid Foundation of Canada's Youth Works program is a national employment program that helps youth in, and from, care in their employment journey. This presentation will explore how barriers and enabling factors have impacted the success of the program and led to the scaling of the program. Come to learn more about the employment journey of youth from care.

Learning Outcomes:

• Exploration into barriers youth from care face to employment
• Enabling factors that support youth employment programming
• Lessons learned in scaling a national youth employment program

Visible minority newcomer women often face significant barriers to finding and keeping good jobs. The Career Pathways for Visible Minority Newcomer Women pilot is an IRCC-funded project that aims to help visible minority newcomer women in their integration in the Canadian labour market. We evaluate the short-term impacts of four models that have been implemented by eight service-provider organizations.

Learning Outcomes:

• Employment-related impacts of specialized programming for racialized newcomer women
• Differential employment-related impacts for women with diverse characteristics
• Use of photovoice by racialized newcomer women

Ontario is undertaking an employment services transformation, moving oversight and funding of Employment Ontario from the Ministry to Service System Managers (SSMs). This presentation will provide an overview of transformation, including impacts of pandemic and BC transformation insights, the various SSM approaches to incentive-based funding and best practices for agency preparation into this new landscape.

Learning Outcomes:

• Lessons learned through Employment Ontario transformation transition
• Insights into the various SSM approaches and BC transition
• Best practices for agency preparation for future transformation

Identifying gaps in employment programs for youth, this panel showcases innovative solutions using a diversity lens, including 1) Employment Support Programs for Diverse Youth by Dr. Wendy Cukier, 2) ADaPT for Youth by Brian Robson, 3) The Bridge for Black Youth by Dr. Beverly-Jean Daniel, and 4) Ryerson's Accelerated Cybersecurity Training Program: Driving Diversity in Cyber Security by Charles Finlay.

Learning Outcomes:

• Recommendations to advance diversity and inclusion in employment programs
• Knowledge of future skills needed for diverse youth groups
• Resources to provide youth with employment training and opportunities

In a context of increasing concern about skills deficits in the workplace, discussion of soft skills (along with the various other terms used for the non-job specific skills needed to perform at work) has become inescapable. This session will provide an opportunity to take a critical look at the question of whether or not this attention is warranted.

Learning Outcomes:

• Able to differentiate the types of skills needed for employment 
• Have considered the relative importance of soft skills 
• Arrive at their own conclusion regarding the future of soft skills