Purpose | National Skills Needs Inventory | National Competency Program Purpose | National Skills Needs Inventory | National Competency Program
Forums of the Canadian Immigrant Resource Network:
Skills management
The Canadian Immigrant Resource Network's Skills Management initiative is intended to facilitate flexible adaptation to the present needs and to the future trends of the Canadian job market. It assists immigrants looking for jobs or in transition between jobs. To bridge the gap between skills, expectations and market needs, best practices discussion rounds are introduced and furthered to explore the following main topics:
Skill gap analysis, identifying current and future resource needs
Categorizing competency requirements and competency level evaluation
Connecting skills demand and supply by educating to bridge the gaps and by identifying careers for skill surpluses.Based on the forum's consensus, a Competency Program is to be established with national competency evaluation and flexible differential training methods. A holistic stakeholder collaboration in the evolving skills inventory and national competency program can serve the needs of both the immigrants and a productive and sustainable Canadian economy.
National Skill Needs Inventory
As a first step for dealing with skill shortages and oversupplies in different regions of the country, the Canadian Immigrant Resource Network is initiating the creation of an inventory of existing and expected skill needs in Canada. It will provide information about the trends and geographical distribution of skills needs and will also help find the right approach to address the issues. The basis of the inventory will be information collected in the Employment Forum and data from employer questionnaires.
Competency Assessment
To make it easier for Canadian employers to understand the immigrants' professional resources and the value of their human capital, this forum works on new strategies and accelerated measures for credential and skills assessment.
The introduction of using national standards in accordance with the NOC system simplifies the process of skills matching and training throughout the country. A systematic and consistent approach in all provinces provides information about job mobility and wages thus furthering competition among regions but also making the job market and application process more accessible in the country.
A more flexible assessment and differential training method can be applied as a supplement to the present practice of comparing and using university programs for measuring knowledge, or in the future in a new complex form, it could fully replace it. This approach helps employers but applicants as well. It enables job seekers to assess their own proficiency levels and training needs.
Skills Development, Upgrading and Retraining
The forum serves the implementation of training and skill upgrading programs as well as the identification of fields and careers where this type of approach could be most beneficial. The Canadian Immigrant Resource Network is implementing its related information centre and discussion forum in order to help orientation among resources and to link them together.
- Information exchange about existing programs and experience:
Taking stock of already existing and applicable course offerings and practices across Canada for different possible occupations and with exchanging information about the effectiveness of the present choices.- Training program implementation:
Mobilizing skill gap identification and training program implementation according to current and projected Canadian skills needs. Task distribution among stakeholder institutions is very important to avoid unnecessary duplication of course development work.- Personal work qualities and attitude:
As skill needs vary even within occupations, teaching and assessing work attitude, self-learning and problem solving techniques and abilities can provide the basis for a new professional evaluation approach.- Skill oversupplies:
In the case comparisons of unemployment rates and job offers in certain professions show strong skill surpluses for a region, the network can link interested parties throughout the country. The information can also be used to investigate whether the further development of industry sectors by using existing skill oversupplies is a viable option.- Distributed delivery:
The use of distance delivery methods will ensure that the training material and exams are equally available for candidates everywhere in the country. To ease local imbalances of supply and demand, telework and ways to develop the needed technical tools will be considered.
About the introduction of assessment and professional development programs for competency evaluation, recognition and training see also the Credentials, Career Creation and Virtual Academy sections.
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