Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Canadian job skills mismatch: truth or science fiction?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Someone asked me this week whether I thought the skills mismatch realluy exists. The idea of the skil,s mismatch is that despite persistent unemployment, there are high-skilled or specialized jobs that go unfilled in large numbers because people with the skills aren't available. My response was that the existence of hundreds of colleges and universities is de facto evidence of a skills mismatch. So when a publication like the Globe and Mail calls the skills mismatch a fairytale, it is referring to one specific statistic in one particular industry, which may or may not be misleading. But in fact, there have always been skills mismatches, and while we can't predict precise job markets, we can do our best - government, industry and educaion - to prepare people to adapt and grow into the new needed skills. "What you can try and do is ensure that you are as resilient as you can be and that you have the broad set of flexible skills that allow you to take advantage of an opportunity when it comes along."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 23, 2024 10:00 p.m.

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