What skills are Canadian employers seeking today?
As Bob Dylan once sang, The times they are a-changin'.
And so are the skill sets that Canadian employers are seeking to fill positions within their companies.
The Conference Board of Canada identified that Ontario alone is losing out on as much as $24.3 billion in economic activity annually because employers can't find suitable candidates with the skills they require to innovate and grow in today's economy.
In a survey, the Conference Board found that employers are in need of post-secondary graduates in science, engineering, technology, business and finance.
They are also looking for candidates with two- or three-year college diplomas (57 per cent); four-year degrees (44 per cent); and trades (41 per cent).
It is not too often today that you can leave high school and step into a high-paying job with employers who are willing to train, mentor or apprentice you -- unlike our mothers and fathers before us.
It is tough competition out there today as your resume sits in the pile with hundreds of others that are glowing with university degrees, college diplomas, and previous related work experience.
CIBC has identified 25 occupations showing signs of skills shortages which, of course, means that these jobs provide gainful employment...that is, if you have the skills to match.
These occupations are:
1. Managers in engineering, architecture, science and information systems
2. Managers in health, education, and social and community services
3. Managers in construction and transportation
4. Auditors, accountants and investment professionals
5. Human resources and business service professionals
6. Professional occupations in natural and applied sciences
7. Physical science professionals
8. Life science professionals
9. Civil, mechanical, electrical and chemical engineers
10. Other engineers
11. Professional occupations in health
12. Physicians, dentists and veterinarians
13. Optometrists, chiropractors and other health diagnosing and treating professionals
14. Pharmacists, dietitians and nutritionists
15. Therapy and assessment professionals
16. Nurse supervisors and registered nurses
17. Technical and related occupations in health
18. Medical technologists and technicians (except dental health)
19. Technical occupations in dental health care
20. Other technical occupations in health care (except dental)
21. Psychologists, social workers, counsellors, clergy and probation officers
22. Supervisors in mining, oil and gas
23. Underground miners, oil and gas drillers, and related workers
24. Supervisors in manufacturing
25. Supervisors in processing occupations
To alleviate the skills gap, the Conference Board recommends in it's study the following: Employers can increase their training and development investments and provide more experiential learning opportunities such as apprenticeships, co-op placements and paid internships; educators can better align programs to the needs of the economy; governments can allocate additional resources for experiential learning opportunities, and collect and share better labour market information; and students can match their own education and training planning to the realities of the labour market.
By Donna Donaldson, MSN Money
What do you think can be done to alleviate the skills shortage in Canada? Are you finding it hard to acquire a job due to the skills and/or education required?
Posted by: Atul K | Jul 23, 2021 8:08:45 PM
Canada is land of immigrants and for new commers it is not easy to find suitable jobs. Should Canada not take steps to train immigrants to get right jobs rather than calling people on work permits. Some attractive incentives to Canadians to pick up skills that are in short supply would also help.
Posted by: asd | Jul 26, 2021 9:02:55 AM
Employers complain for lack of skilled workers, but do not raise the wages to atract talent. They want people with experience and abilities, but want to pay only as a junior position. I noticed that the highest paid engineer is the first one to get the pink slip, without considering his knowledge. Later they hire cheaper personnel and complain they can not do the job. Believe me, I have seen it a lot in my profesion.
Posted by: David | Jul 26, 2021 9:31:06 AM
This list is ridiculous like the other "Top Paying Jobs" articles, and "Jobs of the Future" articles.
The top 10 in the list require at least a Masters or Ph.D. (or the equivalent professional degrees eg; Law, Engineering, Medicine, etc) PLUS 10 to 15 years of direct related experience.
Thats why these lists never ever mention what EXACT degree and requirements are needed for such a job, which will leave around 98% of the people not even being able to reach for such jobs.
And of course there is a shortage, when the government is so cheap not to provide FULL funding for all of its citizens (like other countries do) and then on top of it the colleges and universities charge an arm and a leg and keep hiking tuition and all the other fees every single year, its only going to get worse.
Meanwhile overseas the nations are funding their citizens to the max all the way up to Ph.D. then they unleash them onto the world to steal the jobs across different nations so they slowly gain positions of power and influence in the other countries like a silent invasion. Just look at Canada. How many foreign trained and educated are brought into positions of high salary and power over Canadian citizens. Even the universities do it. They can charge more for foreign students, so they allow more foreign students and decrease the amount of Canadian students.
Posted by: richard koch | Jul 26, 2021 9:39:51 AM
Hi there
My Girlfriend ist a Citizen from Switzerland and she is a Diplom Registert Nurse.She would like to Immigrate to Canada put first get a Workvisa as a Nurse.Canada (BC) is not accepting her Qualifikations from Switzerland,so she can not get a Workvisa.What can be done in a case like this?If you have a chance to respont to my mail I realy appreciate a Comment from you.
Richard Koch