Demand-Led Employment & Training

Current government-funded employment and training support programs have primarily focused on serving job seekers. At SCP, we believe that greater impact can be achieved by balancing the equation – by placing equal emphasis on meeting the needs of employers and job seekers.

Our goal is to ensure that job seekers (“supply”) are able to meet the needs of employers (“demand”). This means bringing employers to the heart of the system, as partners in the design, governance and evaluation of pre-employment programs. Ultimately, we want to ensure that skills training and pre-employment preparation make job seekers attractive to employers, and set up employees for success on the job. The employer, the job seeker, and society all win.

Deloitte Partnership

SCP and Deloitte released a White Paper that called for transformative change. In it, we advanced concrete recommendations for bridging supply and demand to the benefit of both employers and job seekers. By scaling a demand-led employment and training system nationwide, we believe that we can help build a more productive, prosperous and inclusive Canada.

Demand-Led Demonstration Projects

Working directly with employers, SCP developed Demand-Led Demonstration projects in both Ontario (Hospitality sector), and Manitoba (Manufacturing sector).  Both projects saw employers with a central role in the design of pre-employment assessment and training modules geared to upskill jobseekers to meet employer requirements and expectations.

MaRS Solutions Lab tackles urban inequality and youth unemployment to advancing affordable housing and shared mobility, bridging public and private organizations to deliver inclusive innovation.  SCP and MaRS have collaborated to design and test demand-led employment and training solutions at a macro system level.  Most recently, SCP has advised and supported Opportunity for All Youth that works directly with community organizations and employment service providers across Canada to broker relationships with coalition employers and connect young talent directly with available jobs.

Working with Nova Scotia’s Department of Community Services, SCP conducted a labour market scan and analysis identifying in-demand entry-level occupations directing the priority training and placement activities for DCS clients. To address the provincial challenges of long-term unemployment the focus was on occupational clusters that spanned across industries allowing upskilled individuals to transfer skills and occupational expertise into new growth sectors.

Corporate Community Hiring

Working directly with employers from the banking, insurance and grocery retail sectors, SCP ran Corporate Community Hiring pilots. Our goal was to influence the way that large private-sector firms recruit and retain entry-level employees while balancing business objectives and community benefits. As recruitment intermediary, we tested a “fee for service” model and worked with employers and community agencies in building both relationships and processes that would make it easier and more effective for employers to hire and for jobseekers to access good quality employment.