News Bulletin - June 2020
Like the iconic iceberg, there’s more to see and understand when it comes to the workforce innovation research projects funded through the NL Workforce Innovation Centre (NLWIC) and to the workforce innovators in Newfoundland and Labrador who are leading them. So learn more from the links and follow us, follow our projects, engage @NLWIC #tipoftheiceberg or download our brochure here. 
Labour and skills shortages have been documented in all regions of Newfoundland and Labrador, within all sectors of the economy including Aquaculture. In order to meet the increasing labour demand, the Aquaculture sector is needing to draw on a labour pool that is either more distant from the aquaculture labour market with gaps in essential skills, or who have been displaced from other sectors and lack core transferable skills.
As a new and innovative paradigm in the forest sector, bioeconomy development offers an opportunity to attract, and therefore increase, the participation of underrepresented groups in the forest sector. Currently, women represent only six per cent of employment in the forest sector in NL, and other groups such as Indigenous Peoples and youth represent even lower percentages
Ocean Innovators Meetup Series: Special Meetup For World Oceans Day

Join Ocean Startup Project on June 8 for their special edition World Oceans Day Meetup! To be a part of breakout sessions being led by ocean industry experts & CEO’s from coast to coast such as Dr. Sherry Scully, executive director of COVE Oceans, Kendra MacDonald, CEO of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, Michelle Simms, CEO Genesis, Kes Morton, CEO Pisces Research Project Management and many more!
The Brookfield Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (BII+E) has just released the Final Report of its Employment in 2030 research project in which NLWIC was a partner. Preparing Canadians for the future of work in a dynamic labour market is one of the biggest challenges facing policymakers, employers, educators, service providers, and unions. The BII+E Forecast of Canadian Occupational Growth  (FCOG) provides a new tool for understanding how Canada’s labour market could evolve over the next decade, shaped by potentially disruptive drivers ranging from technological change to resource scarcity and an aging population. This forecast offers an important complement to existing labour market information. It presents a possible picture of the future that differs from the Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS), which largely relies on extrapolation from past trends.

The BII+E’s FCOG tool, including the data and modelling code used to build it, is available for download through BII+E’s GitHub . Users are encouraged to explore the data, and to use it to investigate further questions, generate new research, and inform existing labour market information (LMI) tools. 
Canada’s COVID-19 jobs recovery hinges on more insightful data

We are in the midst of a job crisis unlike any Canadian has seen before, yet we should remind ourselves that new opportunities will emerge. To take advantage of these opportunities and to promote an inclusive recovery, we need to better understand and document the emerging skill requirements of our new labour market realties.
Workers hit by Covid-19 need funding for rapid skills development.

As the next step in our pandemic response plan, this $15-million call for proposals for labour market innovations is to help build resiliency in the face of social and economic shock.

The objective of this call is to support all industries with challenges to mitigate, and also looks for new opportunities that can be further leveraged, accelerating skills training to help many navigate an evolving job market.

FSC is seeking proposals for activities such as research, network development and innovation pilots that target sectors, regions, and populations facing pressing needs and recognize emerging opportunities that examine new insights and models across three levels of the skills ecosystem:
What the COVID-19 employment crisis tells us about the future of work

The job losses associated with the COVID-19 crisis highlight the need for Canada to prepare for unexpected shocks to the labour market and develop a workforce with skills that will be prized across a range of industries, futurists and economists say. 

More than  three million Canadians lost their jobs in March and April  as public health restrictions shut down the economy, bringing about what Statistics Canada has said is the most rapid employment decline in the country's history. The losses were staggering given Canada added 245,000 jobs in the 12 months ending in February, a robust period of job opportunity that saw record low unemployment.

Sharon McLennon, director of the NL Workforce Innovation Centre, a research institute at the College of the North Atlantic, said individuals can't tackle on their own the problem of ensuring they have the right skills for navigating COVID or the uncertain picture of work in 2030.
Bright Future Podcast - New Podcast Series

In their latest podcast series, The Conference Board of Canada brings you the connections that make us stronger as individuals, as organizations, and as a country.

Hear from senior-level executives from our biggest institutions and leaders from Canada and around the world. For us, leader isn’t a title, it’s a way of acting in the world. You’ll hear leaders who are working to create a bright future.
On May 11, 2020 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) presented its findings in a final report entitled  Workforce Innovation to Foster Positive Learning Environments in Canada . The NL Workforce Innovation Centre was one of two case studies included in the Canadian portion of this international research project entitled Promoting Skills Use in Canadian Workplaces . Read more about the research project and the NLWIC collaboration here .

In this video presentation, Katharine Mullock of the OECD discusses testing new approaches to upskill adults and make full use of their skills with Gaëlle Miollan, Sharon Mclennon and Shalini da Cunha.
To Our Readers
 
Thank you, reader, for your continued support during these trying times. If there is something specific you’d like to see from us, email  nlwic@nlwic.ca  or tag us at  @nlwic on Twitter.