Understanding the

March 2018
Talent Gap:
Lessons + Opportunities for
Canada
A Discussion Paper
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank the Government of Ontario and the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills
Development for their financial support for this research. We would also like to thank our partners who
hosted employer roundtables on our behalf: Real Ventures, Communitech, Canadian Council of Innovators
and OneEleven. And a huge thank you to all of the employers who attended these roundtables and
provided such candid and thoughtful insights.

We would also like to acknowledge the support and leadership of Arvind Gupta, who has guided and
advised this research.

AUTHORS

AJ TIBANDO
Project Lead

AJ Tibando is the Project Lead for Palette Inc. at the Brookfield Institute for
Innovation + Entrepreneurship, with an interest in the intersection of innovation,
entrepreneurship and public policy. Prior to joining BII+E, she co-founded SoJo, a
social enterprise that delivers social entrepreneurship training to youth through
post-secondary institutes and development agencies. She previously spent several
years as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Government of Ontario, working on issues
such as workforce development, post-secondary education and the innovation
agenda. AJ has a Master of Political Science from the University of Waterloo and a
Bachelor of Arts from the University of British Columbia.

[email protected]

ANDREW DO
Policy Analyst

Andrew Do is a Policy Analyst at the Brookfield Institute for Innovation +

Entrepreneurship with an interest in policy innovation, entrepreneurial education
and organizational behavior. Prior to joining BII+E, he was a Studio [Y] Fellow at
the MaRS Discovery District. He previously worked for a global health startup
focused on combating counterfeit medication and also worked as a Research
Associate for the City of Toronto on social policy files. Andrew has a Master of
Public Policy and a Bachelor of Arts with a focus on Peace and Conflict Studies
from the University of Toronto. He is a 2017 CivicAction DiverseCity Fellow.

[email protected]

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 For more information, visit brookfieldinstitute.ca.
The Brookfield Institute for Innovation +
Entrepreneurship (BII+E) is an independent and @BrookfieldIIE
nonpartisan institute, housed within Ryerson
University, that is dedicated to making Canada the /BrookfieldIIE
best country in the world to be an innovator or an
entrepreneur. The Brookfield Institute for Innovation +
Entrepreneurship
BII+E supports this mission in three ways:
insightful research and analysis; testing, piloting
and prototyping projects; which informs BII+E’s
leadership and advocacy on behalf of innovation
and entrepreneurship across the country.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 5 Considerations for Next Steps 13

Context 6 Palette Inc. 14

Methodology 6 Conclusion 15

Key Findings 6 Works Cited 16

Identifying Talent Needs 7 Appendix 17

Sourcing Talent 8 Appendix A - Participant List 17

Evaluating Talent 10 Appendix B - Roundtable Agenda 18

Retaining Talent 11

Observations 12

Skills in demand 12

Supply-driven and demand-driven 13

Meeting learning needs of mid-career

professionals 13

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INTRODUCTION needs at a granular, competency-based level.
There is also the added complexity of how quickly
There is considerable debate among employers, these signals shift and skill demands from
policymakers and education institutions about employers change, something that becomes more
whether an imbalance exists between labour frequent in an innovation-based economy.
supply and demand. This is commonly referred to
as the “skills mismatch.” Concerns about skills The inability to understand skills needs arising
mismatches are intensifying as policymakers, from demand and respond appropriately will only
educators and employers are attempting to become more acute as the rate of automation
anticipate which skills will be required in a rapidly continues to increase. Recognizing this challenge,
changing, technology-driven economy. policymakers are being forced to take a hard look
at the existing education, training and
A key challenge in anticipating skill needs is the employment infrastructure in the country and
lack of a system for gathering adequate and explore actions that can be taken to address the
appropriately granular labour market data. Shifts current economic reality. There is growing
in the economic landscape and antiquated recognition that new approaches are needed to
methodologies for data collection results in provide continuous learning and skilling
mechanisms that are inadequate for industry to opportunities so that Canadians can benefit from
communicate their talent needs (also known as the changing labour market. The Advisory Council
labour market signals). In order for educators and on Economic Growth has called for a new “third
training providers to create the most relevant pillar” to our workforce training infrastructure,
training programs, they must have clear, reliable noting “at a time of rapid labour market change,
and real-time understanding of skill demand by our system does not sufficiently enable working
employers. adults to continually upgrade their skills.” 2

This can be challenging in any context but it is There are a number of attributes for this third pillar
particularly challenging in a country like Canada that will influence its design. It must be industry-
where the economy is dominated by small and driven to shorten the path from labour market
medium-sized businesses: approximately 97.9 signal to talent production. Programming must be
percent of all firms in Canada are considered small nimble and responsive, given the pace that talent
businesses, defined as firms with one to 99 needs are shifting. And it must be scalable yet
employees. 1 Those small companies send out responsive to the needs of smaller players. This
weak labour market signals individually. Contrast will require systems that are capable of capturing,
that to large companies, which put out strong aggregating and amplifying labour market signals
labour market signals. For example, if one in real time at a granular level.
company announces they are hiring 500 sales
people, it is easy to identify that there is labour A first step in developing this new third pillar is to
market demand for sales people and respond better understand the talent and skill needs that
accordingly. However, if 50 companies individually employers are struggling to fill. This paper captures
announce they are each hiring 10 sales people, it insights gathered over an eight-week period
sends out 50 weak labour market signals instead through multiple employer roundtables held with
of one strong one, even though the net talent 50 tech-focused companies in the Greater Toronto
demand is the same. Area and Kitchener-Waterloo region. The goal was
to better understand their talent needs and the
Weak signals, combined with the sheer volume of challenges they face in identifying, recruiting and
noise in the labour market, make it difficult for retaining talent.
training organizations to understand labour market

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CONTEXT
This report aims to make a valuable contribution
The Brookfield Institute for Innovation + to policy discussions focused on talent
Entrepreneurship has been extensively studying development. However, it is important to note a
the looming impacts of automation on both the number of important characteristics related to the
economy and society to identify the extent and scope, methodology and the data availability,
impact of this disruption to the labour market. Our including:
report The Talented Mr. Robot found that over the + Participating employers for this report are
next two decades, automation could impact 42
all small to medium-sized enterprises
percent of the workforce by eliminating some jobs (SMEs), as defined by Statistics Canada.
and radically reshaping the skills required for
others. 3 + Employer and training provider-based
insights were drawn heavily from startups
At the same time, the report was not all doom and and scale-ups that are software-as-a-
gloom. Historically, as technological revolutions service (SaaS) companies.
change industries and sweep through the + Regional representation of firms is limited
economy, the net result is that for the many jobs to the Greater Toronto Area and
that may be lost, new (and, at times, Kitchener-Waterloo region.
unanticipated) jobs are created. For example,
according to the Information and Communications
Technology Council (ICTC), the Canadian knowledge-intensive. We asked them about their
information and communications technology (ICT) talent needs and how they go about meeting those
sector is projected to have 216,000 unfilled needs. The thrust of this report synthesizes the
technology-oriented jobs by 2021. 4 They also insights from these employer-based roundtables.
acknowledge that the existing education system is A full list of the firms can be found in Appendix 1.
not keeping up with demand. In 2015, only 29,000
graduates came from an ICT field, while existing
demand calls for at least 43,000 ICT graduates per KEY FINDINGS
year. 5 Technology changes opportunities, and it is
incumbent on government to ensure we have the The key findings are based on conversations from
right tools and training infrastructure in place to our roundtables and are focused on understanding
capitalize on it. the talent needs of rapidly scaling small and
medium-sized technology-focused enterprises.

METHODOLOGY In our roundtable conversations, we wanted to

focus particularly on identifying and understanding
This report synthesizes findings from literature on the appetite of these firms to meet their talent
workforce and talent development as it pertains to needs through engaging mid-career professionals
transitioning people from training programs into and, specifically, the perceived opportunities and
employment. The Brookfield Institute for challenges of targeting mid-career professionals
Innovation + Entrepreneurship hosted a series of for recruitment.
five roundtables that included many of Canada’s
most promising startups and scale-ups. The vast From the perspective of employers, we have
majority of these employers are technology synthesized our insights around four broad stages
companies, many of them software-as-a-service that employers undergo when recruiting talent and
(SaaS) companies. The rationale for selecting these the different questions, challenges and
companies is that they are rapidly growing and opportunities they identify within each stage.

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IDENTIFYING TALENT NEEDS Specialized Technical Talent

This stage refers to employers identifying the skills, Employers identified the need for specific technical
experiences and qualifications they desire in requirements for their teams and that they seek
prospective employees. experience and very specialized skill sets.
Employers recognize that demand for specialized
technical skill sets changes rapidly and that skills
Growth Mindset can quickly be obsolete. As one employer noted,
“Software development in the workplace is always
Employers state they require employees to possess evolving.” 10 Employers specifically noted the need
a growth mindset – that is, employees that are for back-end developers and/or full-stack
highly adaptable, able to solve a wide variety of developers with applied experience and
problems, and take initiative in a startup foundational knowledge so they are immediately
environment. As one employer stated, “The people productive. As one recruiter puts it,
we have are constantly reskilling. We present the “‘Temployees’…. We do not have time to train
problem because of where the market is headed, junior developers. They need to be able to hit the
and they’re teaching themselves new technologies ground running.” 11 Related to the need for
[to solve it].” 6 Survey evidence from Stack specialized technical talent, we saw there is little
Overflow suggests self-driven learning is prevalent appetite for more general junior development
and expected among software developers. 7 talent that lacked applied experience. The sense
was that there was a strong pipeline of junior
Startups and scale-ups typically speak of requiring developer talent available, but that finding more
prospective employees to demonstrate “culture senior talent, especially those willing to lead
fit”. While this term is both ambiguous and teams, was the real struggle.
loaded, a critical aspect of culture fit that emerged
in discussions is the propensity of prospective
employees to demonstrate a growth mindset. And People Management Skills
yet, character traits associated with having a
growth mindset seemed difficult to quantify. As Employers stated that they sought leadership skills
one participant noted, “You have to separate the from prospective employees to be able to help
things you can train into somebody from the raw manage teams. Leadership skills become
personality and cultural traits that will make them increasingly important as employees advance in
a successful employee in a startup environment.” 8 their careers. This insight is consistent with reports
from large employers who identify leadership as
Employers perceived that mid-career professionals an important skill set for evaluating mid-career
could lack this cultural fit because of their own employees. A 2016 Business Council of Canada
perceptions that employees from highly structured employer-based survey finds that leadership skills
environments would not have experienced an are one of the most important skills for evaluating
environment that encouraged a growth mindset. mid-career candidates. 12
And yet, one employer noted that, “We would
need to create some training to create a sense of Interestingly, this seemed to be one of the more
urgency to work on projects that are quickly difficult roles to fill in a startup/scale-up
pivoting. We need to retool their brain.” 9 This environment. One employer stated, “Finding
suggests that some employers are open to people with a bit of people management while still
fostering a growth mindset through training and being technically proficient to become a team lead
placement into the right environment. is difficult to fill for. Should we take someone with
people management then pick up technical skills

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or groom up technical people to get that people SOURCING TALENT
management? That is the question.” 13 Another
employer echoed this sentiment, saying “You need This stage refers to the pipelines employers use to
people who understand technical skills and people source the skills, experience and qualifications
skills [to grow] a team, which is hard to find.” 14 they desire in prospective employees.
This sentiment, that there is a need to for skills
development for both specialized and soft skills,
that leadership is critical and management Referral Networks
experience is lacking is consistent with other
findings. The OECD reports that leadership skills to Employers consistently reported that they rely
manage others in jobs tend to be lacking not just heavily on informal peer-to-peer referral networks
in Canada but in other jurisdictions. 15 Alternatively, to identify and recruit talent. Startups/scale-ups
mid-career professionals are perceived to have frequently speak to one another about their talent
some leadership skills and bring maturity that needs and at times will refer prospective
would be valuable for the employers with whom employees to one another, hence playing a critical
we spoke. Recent graduates were perceived as not role in brokering talent across the ecosystem.
intrinsically possessing such leadership skills, as Given the personal relationships involved in
was understood that such skills are best developed sourcing talent from individual networks, senior
through experience. executives are often involved in the recruitment
and hiring process. As one employer noted,
“[When] you do not have expertise in-house…you
Regional Needs dread the search. The CEO takes initiative and puts
the recruiter hat on.” 19 It was also common to hear
The demand and supply for skills differed the sentiment, “If I find candidates that are great
regionally, even in two regions that are physically that do not have a job, I will refer them to another
quite close. Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo are company.” 20
about 100 km apart and are municipal regions
where the technology sector comprises a large and At the same time, we heard that networks tend to
growing share of employment. Toronto employs overlap with those of other employers, including
286,100 workers in the technology sector whereas competitors. As such, employers speak about
Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge employs 23,200 drawing from a shrinking pool of talent that is not
technology sector workers. 16 Accordingly, keeping pace with demand. We heard from some
startups/scale-ups recognize “every region has a employers that they have created informal “no-
different industrial profile, which requires poach” understandings with one another. 21
industry-specific knowledge from the labour Furthermore, as companies begin to rapidly scale,
pool.” 17 Employers in the Kitchener-Waterloo they realize that referral networks are not a
region noted a high demand for technical sales scalable model for recruitment and relying just on
and design expertise. 18 Employers in Toronto also these means too many missed opportunities to
expressed a high demand for technical sales recruit top-notch prospective talent. A recent
expertise and industry-specific specialized MaRS report found that many employers tend to
technical talent, however noted that finding design rely on in-person recruiting and referrals whereas
expertise was relatively easy. Regional differences job seekers are more likely to look for work through
and their resulting talent nuances often don’t get online job ads. 22
captured in high-level reports on labour market
needs, but only come through granular analysis.

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Co-Op Programs learning opportunities such as co-op is the amount
of staff time it takes to recruit, train and supervise
Co-op programs were continually identified as a co-op students. The smaller the firm, the more
key form of work-integrated learning offered by likely it is to cite this as a challenge. 28
universities and colleges. Work-integrated learning
is a broad term that encompasses various learning Furthermore, employers note that many students
opportunities centered on the integration of lack requisite soft skills. One employer found that
academic learning and practical application in many students “don’t know how to be good team
chosen work environments. Co-op programs are players and build with a team. They do not have
defined as “guided professional and employability realistic expectations.” 29 This is consistent with
skill development through alternating full-time employer-based surveys that suggest students are
study and full-time employment across an lacking in expected soft skills. 30 Finally, the
academic program.” 23 They are often discussed as timelines of co-op programs are often misaligned
a talent pipeline for recent graduates of post- to the timelines of startups/scale-ups. As one
secondary institutions. On this front, Canada is employer noted, “We are always late to the co-op
fortunate to have world-class co-op programs that cycle because of our budget cycle and how
are well-suited to startup/scale-ups. unpredictable it is.” 31

Employers noted that these programs serve as key As such, employers have turned to work-
pipelines, but have mixed experiences relying on integrated learning models that enable them to
co-op as a source of talent. On one hand, they are keep students for a longer period of time. One
ideal to test potential longer-term employees to employer reported relying on a professional
determine fit. One employer described co-op as a experience year program, which functions like a 12
“…vetting process. Once they are in the door and to 16-month co-op program. 32 Despite mixed
feel the culture. We retain about 40 percent of co- reviews from employers on the value of co-op,
op students longer-term…We are using co-ops for there was a high level of agreement that they are a
future growth.” 24 Co-ops were also described as a valuable pipeline for young talent.
“…platform for ‘try before you buy’ scenarios.” 25
They also serve as another potential referral
network to source talent. As one employer noted, Rapid-training
“[Co-op students] go back to build our brand and
refer other high-caliber students to us. Students There are rapid training programs to help job
build our talent pipeline.” 26 seekers develop relevant skills in a short amount
of time relative to other typical pathways such as
On the other hand, there are challenges to using post-secondary education or vocational schooling.
co-op students. One reason is they require large Most are intended to serve an audience of adult
amounts of staff resources for recruitment, training learners that have different learning needs from a
and supervision. As one employer succinctly noted, typical post-secondary student.
“Co-ops require onboarding – we get value, they
contribute and we pay them but they need to be One rapid training program that came up
able to ramp up quickly and hence, we cannot just repeatedly amongst startups/scale-ups was coding
have co-ops.” 27 This sentiment is consistent with boot camps. These are defined as “intensive,
existing research on employer perspectives on accelerated learning programs that teach
work-integrated learning programs like co-op. The beginners digital skills…that vary in length from six
Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario to 28 weeks, although the average boot camp
suggests that the single biggest challenge facing length is 12 weeks long.” 33 These coding boot
employers that take advantage of work-integrated camps exist to help startups/scale-ups meet their

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technical talent needs. However, many employers offering candidates an “opportunity to build a
indicated that graduates from coding boot camp challenge marketing sales customer success, do
programs are not necessarily a good fit as much of the challenge on their own time, submit and, if the
the talent is too entry-level for their needs. challenge is promising, they’re invited in to present
Employers universally stated that they do not need to the team where their presentation and
junior front-end developers, which is the profile of communication granular is assessed.” 37 The
the typical coding boot camp graduate. Coding downside of this approach is that challenges can
boot camps, employers claim, have not been be time-consuming for candidates with little
training the much needed specialized technical guarantee of payoff at the end. If the employer is
talent alluded to earlier. 34 In addition, employers targeting highly desirable candidates with multiple
perceive many coding boot camps as lacking in employment options, an overly onerous
equipping prospective candidates with a growth challenge-based interview process could be a turn
mindset. As one employer put it, “The best off.
developers are incredibly disciplined, methodically
minded and work independently – coding schools Another method to evaluate a prospective
are organized and people who are participating candidate is through their previous work. This puts
often lack that skill set to teach themselves.” 35 employers in an active recruiter role. When hiring
developers, one employer reported looking at
Furthermore, employers perceived coding boot open source projects on tools such as Github
camps to be lacking in rigour with respect to their where a prospective candidate has participated in
admissions processes. In the words of one suggesting that “if someone has contributed to
employer, “Anyone can get in…there must be an open source projects, that tells you that they have
element of something selective and competitive for basic debugging skills and that they have good
it.”36 Some coding boot camps are adapting their documentation.” 38 Employers want see tangible
programming to be more responsive to industry demonstration of a prospective candidate’s skills
need, but the lack of clear, skill-based labour and any systems to highlight these were seen
market data available makes this a challenge. positively.

EVALUATING TALENT Assessing Unconventional Labour Market

Signals
This stage refers to employers evaluating and
assessing prospective employees in determining Hiring talent for startups/scale-ups is very
whether they display the necessary qualifications competitive. As such, employers must look to
for employment. other indicators that are not typical. As one
employer noted, “If we could hire people who had
great pedigrees, we would. Someone with
Show, not tell computer science at Harvard is more likely to be a
strong candidate, but we can’t compete for that
Employers suggest that assessing talent is a talent – we’re forced to find the diamonds in the
relatively straightforward step. Employers often rough, but we have to get very good at that to turn
ask prospective employees to tangibly it into an advantage.” 39 Another employer spoke
demonstrate their skills and will have them about hiring a line cook to be one of their public
produce work. As a result, challenge-based relations people. And yet another employer
interviews in which prospective employees must commented that “most tech folks who have been
simulate solving a real-world problem are popular extremely successful have dropped off somewhere
interviewing methods. One employer reported in their academic career, a lot of bigger wins come

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from people who excelled in non-pedigree celebrating people as they become individual
programs. Our best growth hacker...had a contributors and giving them options. Example of
background that’s totally unimpressive.” 40 one team lead that was in a people management
role that did not want to be that. Found a different
However, employers also noted that conventional technical role for them that they wanted.” 42
labour market validation signals are not
necessarily strong indicators that the candidate is Other employers reported having a fast pathway
the right fit for their needs. One employer noted for career growth for junior talent as a means to
that their first hire was a “PhD in machine learning encourage them to take on additional
at MIT who left his last year to join the company. responsibilities. Employers referred to having to
They were supposed to revolutionize the promote talent within to acclimatize them to new
technology and it was a disaster – they had no responsibilities. However, very few startups/scale-
practical application whatsoever.” 41 Through these ups have the infrastructure in place to properly
unconventional labour market signals, employers prepare their workers to take on additional
are aiming to determine whether they possess the responsibilities. One employer with over 200
growth mindset trait identified earlier. What this employees that has the requisite infrastructure in
suggests is that there does not need to be a place said that there is an “80/20 gap [and they
standard profile for someone who works in a have to be] focused on development people to fill
startup/scale-up environment. that 20-percent gap, but it requires a robust
process.” 43

RETAINING TALENT
A Rapid Ramp-Up
This stage refers to the efforts that employers put
into developing strategies for keeping talent in Startup/scale-up employers require employees
their company. that are able to ramp up quickly, which is all the
more pressing given their business constraints.
Furthermore, they lack the capacity to train their
Pathways for Growth staff. This is especially true of recent graduates and
students. As one employer put it, “No one comes
Some, but not all, employers have given careful out of school with the abilities we need, so
consideration to creating pathways for career companies are having to train employees.
growth within a company as a talent retention However, a lot of graduates come out and do not
strategy. This was most evident with technical know how to be good team players and to build
talent, especially in light of a high demand for with a team.” 44 Employers claimed they do not
more senior technical talent and/or technical have “time to train junior developers. They need to
talent that also involves a people management hit the ground running and integrate quickly with
role. Traditional growth pathways are generally their team.” 45 Integrating with a team is what
made up of promotions that lead to roles employers emphasize as being critical to ramp up
managing ever larger teams. However, some quickly.
employees are not interested or qualified to lead
teams, though they are highly valuable workers. The lack of resources towards training is broadly
Instead of letting these workers languish, consistent with what many small and medium-
employers have been flexible with the type of sized enterprises report. When there is training, it
pathways for career growth available for their is often directed towards more highly skilled and
employees. One employer stated, “We created more senior-level staff. Evidence shows that 70
some vertical paths on the technology side. We are percent of the training budget goes to this category

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of workers, while lower-skilled employees are in + Universal skills
higher need of professional development. 46
— These are skills that are used in nearly
every job and across a multitude of
OBSERVATIONS sectors. These are the most transferable
skills for participants and include literacy
The goal of gathering this research was to provide skills as well as “soft” skills such as
insight into the talent needs of employers for the communications, collaboration and
purpose of better informing program design for problem solving. A “growth mindset”,
training providers, particularly within the context which has been identified as essential
of supporting career transition for mid-career for employers, would also fall into this
workers. The following observations and category.
considerations provide a framework for how to
take these insights from employers and adapt + Sector-specific technical skills
them for training, whether through public or
private institutions. — These are skills that tend to be specific to
one industrial sector (or closely related
industrial sectors). For example, digital
SKILLS IN DEMAND skills like web development, user
experience design, sales and project
Employers are seeking to hire employees with a management are broadly applicable to
variety of skills. To better understand how to technology-oriented sectors.
translate skill demand into training, we must
distinguish between different sets of skills and + Firm-specific technical skills
what kind of training programs are best suited to
support this skill development. We can distinguish — These are the most narrowly scoped
between three “tiers” of skills: skills and tend to be specific to one
particular firm or group of like firms. In-
house corporate training, work-
integrated learning and onboarding are
most often used to develop this set of
skills.

Given these different tiers of skills, training

providers have oriented themselves to different
tiers of the training pyramid. Educational
institutions such as post-secondary institutions are
better positioned for the lower parts of the
pyramid as they most often provide universal skills
through traditional degree or diploma programs.
Sector-specific technical skills can be trained
through a range of approaches including industry-
driven programs at public institutions, continuing
education classes, and private career colleges such
as coding academies and boot camps, etc. It is
nearly universal that the firms themselves deliver
firm-specific technical skills. To properly realize

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the skills pyramid, each level must be successfully career workers. This goes beyond flexible
integrated, building on layers and layers of skills so scheduling and includes considerations around
that employees with a strong foundation of how best to assess prior learning and experience,
universal and sector-specific technical skills can incorporating competency-based evaluation tools,
“hit the ground running” with a company, despite and designing lean curriculums that focus on
the need for onboarding to familiarize with firm- providing the minimum knowledge required to be
specific requirements. job-ready. Some post-secondary institutions are
exploring this in earnest and, indeed, many post-
secondary institutions do offer continuing
SUPPLY-DRIVEN AND DEMAND-DRIVEN education intended for a mature adult audience to
supplement their core audience of young adults. At
There are a number of design methodologies for the same time, the reality is that the nimbleness
training programs that help job seekers get required and the ability to integrate employers into
matched with appropriate employers and therefore skilling pedagogy calls for new paradigms that are
address labour market need. Broadly speaking, more attuned to the needs of mid-career
training programs can be driven by job seekers professionals.
(supply-push) or by industry (demand-pull).

Employers suggest that from their perspective, a CONSIDERATIONS FOR NEXT STEPS
key factor for success in training, particularly for
sector-specific technical skills, is the inclusion of The purpose of this research was to understand
industry in designing programming to ensure that the challenges of finding talent from the
training corresponds to their needs. It is critical to perspective of employers at a sufficiently granular
create mechanisms that ensure that employers are level. We wanted to move beyond what job
able to clearly articulate their skill needs to vacancies they needed to fill to better understand
training providers and ensure they are reflective in the processes for communicating talent needs,
programming design. Real-time, regionally strategies being deployed for sourcing and
relevant competency and skill-focused labour securing talent, and the ability to train and retain
market information is a missing link for training existing talent. Understanding these processes and
providers to design such programs creating a gap methodologies for evaluating applicants help
in their ability to be responsive and reflective of inform intermediaries about how they can most
employer needs. successfully support employers and workers to
develop an effective “third pillar” of workforce
development infrastructure as envisioned by the
MEETING LEARNING NEEDS OF MID- Advisory Council on Economic Growth.
CAREER PROFESSIONALS
These findings suggest there is a strong appetite
The primary role that post-secondary institutions for an industry-led, demand-driven training
play in the training ecosystem is through degree or solution. Some of the key considerations that
diploma programs, with specific focus on young organizations seeking to support mid-career
adults that are entering the workforce for the first workers and employers through the impacts of
time. Mid-career professionals pursue training automation include:
programs to deepen their technical skills or make a
career transition. They are often constrained with
the demands of their work life and home life.
Training providers must reflect this reality in the
design of adult-friendly programs targeting mid-

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 + Understand talent demand on a granular, — Do not attempt to train workers for every
company-by-company level single aspect of a skill (at the speed new
tools are being developed, that
— While companies might identify a need knowledge will be quickly obsolete).
to fill similar sounding jobs, when Rather, train them to sufficiently
pressed they often describe the skills they undertake the job and help them develop
value differently. Speaking to companies techniques to become self-learners so
provides a richer and more accurate skill they are always staying current.
profile for jobs which can then be
adequately reflected in the training.
PALETTE INC.

+ Have consistent dialogue with employers on The Brookfield Institute for Innovation +
their skill needs Entrepreneurship is incubating Palette Inc., an
organization charged with catalyzing employers,
— Fast growing companies are constantly training providers and job seekers to engage and
iterating and new technologies are develop new approaches to workforce
coming online frequently, thus development. The mission of Palette is to
continually changing the nature of work particularly focus on mid-career workers whose
and the needed skills demands. jobs are threatened by automation and ensure an
appropriate retraining and upskilling infrastructure
+ Recognize the vital importance of a growth that positions these individuals for high-demand
mindset in employees and ensure all careers in the innovation economy. Specifically,
training fosters this Palette will:

— Design programs in such a way that + Increase the number of mid-career workers
trainees are pushed to develop their transitioning from jobs that are at high risk of
abilities to adapt, self-teach and to be automation to jobs that are at a lower risk of
flexible while solving a variety of automation through upskilling
problems.
+ Decrease the number of employers that
+ Develop tools to translate the value of identify a lack of domestic talent as their
previous work experience in what might be primary businesses challenge
considered “old economy jobs” to the
language of “new economy jobs” + Increase the availability of agile, short-term,
industry-led training programs within the
— Many of the skills valued in traditional training ecosystem
jobs are still highly valued in new
economy jobs, but they may be described + Improve mechanisms for collecting granular,
differently. Translating this value can sector-specific, skill-focused labour market
shrink the perceived distance between data, particularly from small and medium-
old jobs and new jobs. sized enterprises, and disseminate that data
widely
+ Design lean programming that provides the
essentials

BROOKFIELD INSTITUTE FOR INNOVATION + ENTREPRENEURSHIP 14

A strong third pillar of workforce infrastructure
would require a few key components:
In the coming months, the Brookfield Institute for
Innovation + Entrepreneurship will be launching
+ Clear, granular, real-time information about
Palette Inc. as an independent not-for-profit
what skills employers are seeking;
organization. It is currently under development,
seeking partners for a pilot in 2018.
+ A pool of well suited job seekers who are
looking to upskill for new work;
If you are interested in learning more about this
initiative or working with us, please visit our
+ Rapid and relevant training programs that
website at brookfieldinstitute.ca/palette.
produce workers geared toward the current
needs of employers.

Palette Inc. will function as a backbone for intensive companies are seeking and provides a
gathering data from employers through their foundation of understanding of the types of
labour market signals and from job seekers to outcomes a workforce development program
catalyze and spur training providers to design and would exhibit.
deliver programs to meet that demand. Palette is
envisioned as the foundation for the third pillar, Inclusive growth through innovation must be the
ensuring a training marketplace that meets the foundational goal of all programs, supports and
needs of the country. interventions focused on the future economy –
whether they are targeted at workers or employers
– in order to see a broad social benefit from
CONCLUSION automation and the changing labour market.

Significant changes in the labour market are

nothing new but the pace of innovation in
processes, technology or systems is accelerating. It
is best to understand our current situation not as
the beginning of new sudden change, but as the
beginning of a very rapid acceleration of consistent
change. Ensuring we have the mechanisms in
place to adapt and benefit from this change will be
essential for all members of society to see a
benefit from automation and technological
advance.

As skill demands, job descriptions and new roles

change and develop at a rapid rate, mechanisms
are needed to ensure programming and support
systems are relevant. Close, on-going
collaborations with employers are critical to gather
and interpret labour market signals, and to design
programming that transitions available skills to
needed skills. The research gathered in this paper
represents a snapshot in time and geography of
what employers in fast-growing, knowledge-

BROOKFIELD INSTITUTE FOR INNOVATION + ENTREPRENEURSHIP 15

WORKS CITED

Advisory Council on Economic Growth. (2017). Tapping Economic Potential Through Broader Workforce Participation.

Advisory Council on Economic Growth. (2017). Learning Nation: Equipping Canada’s Workforce with Skills for the Future.

Business Council of Canada. (2016). Developing Canada’s future workforce: A survey of large private-sector employers.

ICTC. (2015). Digital Economy Supply: Canada’s Post-Secondary Education Stream.

ICTC. (2017). The Next Talent Wave: Navigating the Digital Shift - Outlook 2021

Lamb, C. and Seddon, M. (2016). The State of Canada’s Tech Sector, 2016.

Lamb, C. (2016). The Talented Mr. Robot: The impact of automation on Canada’s workforce.

Lamb, C., & Lo, M. (2017). Automation Across the Nation: Understanding the Potential Impacts of Technological Trends across
Canada.

MaRS (2018). Talent Fuels Tech.

OECD (2014). Skills Beyond School: Synthesis Report, OECD Reviews of Vocational Education and Training, OECD Publishing.

Rivard, P. (2017). The Contribution to Canadian Net Employment Change by High-Growth Firms.

Statistics Canada. (2017). Key Small Business Statistics - June 2016.

The Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity. (2017). The Labour Market Shift: Training a highly skilled and resilient workforce in
Ontario

World Economic Forum. (2016). The Future of Jobs: Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

BROOKFIELD INSTITUTE FOR INNOVATION + ENTREPRENEURSHIP 16

APPENDIX

APPENDIX A - PARTICIPANT LIST

Roundtable #1 - Real Ventures Roundtable #4 - Council of Canadian Innovators

+ Kahuso + Wattpad
+ Raw Signal Group + Ethoca
+ Universe + Council of Canadian Innovators
+ Ada Support + Hubba
+ FreshBooks
Roundtable #2 - Communitech
+ Clearpath Robotics Roundtable #5 - OneEleven
+ Magnet Forensics + Borrowell
+ Axonify + Applied Brain Research
+ Sortable + Nudge.ai
+ KIK + Blockthrough
+ D2L + OneEleven
+ Communitech + Altus Group
+ TextNow
+ Thalmic Labs Additional Employer Interviews
+ Atomic + Street Contxt
+ Information Ventures
Roundtable #3 - Scale-up Consultation with + Nudge.ai
MEDG
+ Influitive
+ Information Venture Partners
+ NexJ Systems
Training Providers
+ Ryerson DMZ
+ Lighthouse Labs
+ RateHub
+ LinkedIn/Lynda.com
+ FreshBooks
+ BrainStation
+ Genesys Capital
+ HackerYou
+ MaRS Discovery District Venture Services
+ Npower

BROOKFIELD INSTITUTE FOR INNOVATION + ENTREPRENEURSHIP 17

APPENDIX B - ROUNDTABLE AGENDA

Time Activity

8:30-9:00 Coffee + networking opportunity

9:00-9:25 Welcome, opening remarks, and overview of MEDG Scale-Up Strategy with introduction
to the workshop.

9:25-9:50 Activity #1:

+ Objective: Obtain insight into what key barriers are top of mind for scale-ups.
+ Output: Populated flipcharts with barriers identified on labeled post-it notes
representing 6 strategic pillars, by 3 phases of growth, growth, grouped by
strategic pillars.
+ Key questions: What are the key barriers your company has faced or is facing?
+ Activity detail: Each table uses post-it notes with all six pillars to write down
barriers they face.

9:55-10:35 Activity #2:

+ Objective: Obtain deeper insights as to why these barriers are barriers and what
impact they have.
+ Output: Identified barriers (and priorities) by strategic pillar, along with the
rationale.
+ Key questions: Why do you face these barriers?
+ Activity detail: Tables organized by each pillar discuss those specific pillars in
detail.

10:35-10:55 Activity #3:

+ Objective: Understand what existing solutions, if any, these scale-ups have
pursued to overcome these barriers.
+ Output: Identified existing solutions matched with a corresponding barrier.
+ Key questions: What have been the most useful resources you have accessed to
grow your business? How have you been overcoming this barrier, if at all?
+ Activity detail: Tables organized by each pillar discuss those specific pillars in
detail.

10:55-11:00 Wrap-up + Thank You

BROOKFIELD INSTITUTE FOR INNOVATION + ENTREPRENEURSHIP 18

ENDNOTES

1 Statistics Canada (2017), Key Small Business Statistics - June 2016, p. 1

2 Advisory Council on Economic Growth (2017), Learning Nation: Equipping Canada’s Workforce with Skills for the Future, p. 12.
3 Lamb, C. (2016). The Talented Mr. Robot: The impact of automation on Canada’s workforce.
4 ICTC (2017), The Next Talent Wave: Navigating the Digital Shift - Outlook 2021, p. 13.
5 ICTC (2015), Digital Economy Supply: Canada’s Post-Secondary Education Stream
6 Roundtable, Real Ventures
7 C. Lamb, (2017) Stacking Up: A snapshot of Canada’s developer talent, p. 45.
8 Roundtable, Real Ventures
9 Roundtable, Council of Canadian Innovators
10 Roundtable, Real Ventures, September 6, 2017.
11 Roundtable, Council of Canadian Innovators, October 4
12 Business Council of Canada (2016), Developing Canada’s Future Workforce, p. 4.
13 Roundtable, Council of Canadian Innovators
14 Roundtable, Council of Canadian Innovators
15 OECD, Skills Beyond School: Synthesis Report, p. 92

16 Lamb, C. (2016), The State of Canada’s Tech Sector, 2016.p. 55

17 Roundtable, September 7
18 Roundtable, Communitech
19 Roundtable, Real Ventures
20 Roundtable, Council of Canadian Innovators
21 Roundtable, Council of Canadian Innovators
22 MaRS (2018), Talent Fuels Tech, p. 11
23 HEQCO (2016), A Practical Guide for Work-Integrated Learning
24 Roundtable, Canadian Council of Innovators
25 Roundtable, Real Ventures
26 Roundtable, OneEleven
27 Roundtable, Real Ventures
28 HECQO (2012). Work-Integrated Learning and Postsecondary Graduates: The Perspective of Ontario Employers, p. 59.
29 Roundtable, Communitech
30 Ibid, p. 59.
31 Roundtable, Canadian Council of Innovators
32 Roundtable, Canadian Council of Innovators
33 CourseReport, What is a Coding Bootcamp?
34 Roundtable, Council of Canadian Innovators
35 Roundtable, Real Ventures
36 Roundtable, OneEleven
37 Roundtable, Real Ventures
38 Roundtable, OneEleven
39 Roundtable, Real Ventures
40 Roundtable, Real Ventures
41 Roundtable Real Ventures
42 Roundtable, Council of Canadian Innovators
43 Roundtable, Council of Canadian Innovators
44 Roundtable, Communitech
45 Roundtable, Council of Canadian Innovators
46 Advisory Council on Economic Growth, (2017). Learning Nation: Equipping Canada's Workforce with Skills for the Future, p.5.

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