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“If you’re looking at the big picture,
there’s a global shortage of skills. Here in
Canada, it’s expected that there will be
a shortage of about two million skilled
workers by 2026 – and just in British
Columbia, for example, there’s going to
be about a million job openings in 2019,
and about 75 per cent of those are going
to require post-secondary education. The
reality is that we just don’t have the people
who can fill those positions,” said Stephen
Cryne, president and CEO at CERC.
“We’re competing with other jurisdictions
for the same skills. From every
corner of the earth, people are complaining
that projects aren’t going forward,
business is being lost as a consequence of
not having skills.”
That’s why integration and mobility are
really an important part of the solution.
“I’m not saying it’s the full solution
– it’s a lot of other things (as well). But
when you look at mobility and migration,
I think that as policy makers and as
businesses and associations or regulatory
bodies, I think we’ve got to do a far better
job going forward. What worked in the
past is certainly not going to work in the
future if we want to attract those people,”
said Cryne.
CREDENTIAL RECOGNITION
Cross-border reciprocation and credential
recognition are crucial pieces of the
puzzle, but there is still plenty of ground
to gain on that front, says Cryne.
Credentialing is critically important,
as is recognition of credentialing, especially
when there is labour mobility and
globalized labour mobility, says Elizabeth
Kwan, senior researcher at the Canadian
Labour Congress.
“On the higher-scale national and
international level, we have seen the issues
with credential recognition with
immigrants who have come to Canada
and that difficulty in having the credentials
recognized, but also working within
a system where you have both the federal
and provincial governments having
different jurisdictions over credentialing
and recognition of credentialing,”
she said. “This whole idea of credentialing
has always been important and tied
to immigration – and not just permanent
immigration, as in immigrants coming to
Canada, but also in temporary immigration
in terms of migrant workers from the
Temporary Foreign Worker Program.”
WHAT’S HR TO DO?
This entire quandary is difficult enough as
it is, but it becomes increasingly complex
if professions do not have a solid foundation
of competencies and credentials
to work from. In HR in particular, much
work has been done over the past two
decades toward establishing, reevaluating
and building on a strong competency
framework for designated professionals.
Currently, there are only a handful of
countries that have comprehensive and
detailed core competency frameworks in
HR; these include Australia, the U.S.,
the UK and the Human Resources
Professionals Association (HRPA)’s in
Canada. HRPA’s competency framework
is the newest in the world.
“IF YOU’RE LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE, THERE’S
A GLOBAL SHORTAGE OF SKILLS. HERE IN CANADA,
IT’S EXPECTED THAT THERE WILL BE A SHORTAGE OF
ABOUT TWO MILLION SKILLED WORKERS BY 2026.”
– STEPHEN CRYNE, CANADIAN EMPLOYEE RELOCATION COUNCIL
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22 ❚ SPECIAL CONFERENCE EDITION 2017 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL