Federal political party leaders are turning up the volume on economic issues as they head into election 2015’s stretch run, but little attention has been paid thus far to critical human resources issues facing Canadian businesses. Reports from two national business organizations underscore the seriousness of the country’s education, training and jobs market misalignment.
A September 14 Canadian Chamber of Commerce (CCC) release pointed out that while the World Economic Forum rates Canada’s education system quality as the seventh best in the world, the country is facing a skills gap that’s costing provinces billions of dollars annually in lost GDP.
More concerning still, according to a McKinsey & Company Canada survey cited by the CCC, while two-thirds of employer respondents said post-secondary graduates were unprepared for employment, 83% of educators think those graduates are employment-ready. Even if the reality lies somewhere in the middle of those two viewpoints, the problems facing companies in Canada are huge.
For example, a recent Canadian Federation of Independent Business survey found that 88% of respondents can’t find qualified applicants for job openings. Far too many, they said, had unrealistic salary expectations, were unwilling to do physical labour and had trouble showing up for work.
Employer complaints about staff performance ranged from the poor work ethic to employees spending too much time on personal calls, emails and text messaging.
These shortcomings can’t all be laid at the feet of Canadian training and education systems. But federal politicians need to commit to more programs that ensure the country’s education facilities have a closer connection to employer and job market needs so that the main clients of the school system – its students – are given that best chance to succeed in the job marketplace. That would go a long way to helping Canada and its business community take advantage of economic opportunities now and 10 years down the road.
