NGen Leads Assessment of Skills Requirements of the Canadian Manufacturing Workforce

HAMILTON, Ontario, Nov. 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Manufacturing is essential to the Canadian economy, contributing approximately 10% of our GDP. Two of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers is ensuring that their workers have the right skills to support them as they take on new technologies and practices, and onboarding enough new workers to support sustained operations and growth. These challenges will be exacerbated as more of the existing workforce enters retirement. Introducing automation and other digital technologies has been proposed as a solution to address the skills gap, but it poses its own set of unique challenges.

Canada’s Occupational and Skills Information System (OaSIS) contains data on the competencies required to work in 900 different occupations, providing the users with a standardized way to understand how competencies vary by level of proficiency across occupations. With the rapid adoption of technologies, can the OaSIS database support the future needs of the manufacturing sector? Also, is there alignment of skills and competencies across manufacturing subsectors?

In one study conducted under NGen’s Future Ready program, funded in part by ESDC’s Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program (SWSP), the cluster contracted 6 industry associations (APMA, BioTalent Canada, CMISA, DAIR, FPSC, and SIMSA) to engage their members to help generate a snapshot of the current skills and proficiencies of the Canadian manufacturing workforce, and how those skills and proficiencies are projected to evolve through 2040. In total, 157 Canadian manufacturers participated in this study.

Projected skill levels for 2030 and 2040 indicate an emerging emphasis on digital literacy, cognitive skills, and soft skills, with the largest changes in projected proficiencies occurring in Digital Literacy, Problem Solving, and Creativity and Innovation.

The results paint a picture of a digitally literate workforce that will require cognitive and soft skill enhancement to be effective in the digital work environment of the future.

These findings suggest that manufacturing needs to understand and prepare for changes in competencies across all job functions. This will require a strategy of incorporating continuous upskilling and recruitment within and across the manufacturing sector.

Another important finding was that there is a great deal of commonality across the various sectors of manufacturing and across regions, meaning that pan-Canadian, cross-sectoral solutions have the potential to drive tremendous economic impact.

To read more about NGen’s workforce research initiatives, visit http://www.ngen.ca/futureready.

Research Papers

Quotes

“We believe that our manufacturing workforce is a critical national asset and must be looked at through a pan-Canadian, cross-sectoral lens.  Through our collaboration with six organizations supporting specific manufacturing sectors, we have identified common core competencies as well as common skills challenges facing Canada’s manufacturing sector which provides nearly ten percent of Canada’s GDP.” 

– Stewart Cramer, Chief Manufacturing Officer, NGen

“As the lead skills training organization for Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing industry, we know — as do businesses — that upskilling and continuous learning is fundamental to any successful workforce. Skills training values individuals and supports recruitment and retention.”

– Jennefer Griffith, Executive Director, Food Professing SKills Canada 

“Transitions aren’t only about innovation and technology. The companies that get it right are the ones that will bet on their current workforce with new skills, patience and direction. The jurisdictions that will lead in the new automotive will be the ones that partner with those companies and workers to chart their path.”

– Flavio Volpe, President, APMA

“The Saskatchewan labour market is very competitive, and the manufacturing market has a difficult time competing with other booming, high productivity markets such as mining, energy and tech. The skill trend analysis we did in partnership with NGen underscores a dynamic shift in occupational competencies, highlighting the move from solely technical skills to a more broadly skilled and adaptable workforce across various sectors.  Research of this kind is essential to our ability to build the workforce that we will need to compete and grow not only against our global competitors, but also in the fierce competition for talent in our home province of Saskatchewan.

SIMSA greatly appreciates the support of and invaluable work by NGen!”

– Eric Anderson, Executive Director, SIMSA

About NGen

NGen is the industry-led not-for-profit organization that leads Canada’s Global Innovation Cluster for Advanced Manufacturing. Its mandate is to help build world-leading advanced manufacturing capabilities in Canada for the benefit of Canadians. NGen works to strengthen collaboration among its membership of more than 5,000 manufacturers, technology companies, innovation centres, and researchers, and provides funding and business support to industry-led initiatives that aim to develop, apply, or scale-up transformative manufacturing solutions in Canada for commercialization in global markets. http://www.ngen.ca/membership.

Media Contact

Robbie MacLeod
Robbie.macleod@ngen.ca
613-297-3578