Hannah Scott
Professor
University of Ontario Institue of Technology
Igor Kotlyar
Assistant professor
University of Ontario Institue of Technology
Hannah Scott: A community member brought us a procedure called the skillshed study that we implemented. The idea here is to do a study that looks at both employers and the workforce, looking at skills and labour.
We’re hoping that the impact of this study will be to be able to implement it on a larger level across the nation, to, so that communities can talk to one another about the mismatch of skills. So if we have, for example, welders in one community that are needed, in the other community we may have a series of jobs that require welding and so that these two communities can talk to one another about meeting those needs.
Igor Kotlyar: So we’re hoping that this work is going to shift the discussion a bit away from the national and provincial level to more of a local community level where skill gaps can be examined.
Hannah Scott: I think we need a mechanism to be able to do that, and we need to put the appropriate skills and level of funding behind it to do it well, so that we can have a good communication effort between communities. And the data that’s produced at that community level will be meaningful to people who work in that community as well.