Canada does not have a simple shortage of training. It has a harder workforce development problem: many employers know skills are changing, but they do not have the time, systems or confidence to turn that knowledge into sustained learning inside the workplace. Three recent Future Skills Centre reports make the point from different directions. One looks at why small and medium sized businesses struggle to invest in training even when they can see the need. Another looks at women in the skilled trades and the barriers that continue after recruitment. A third argues that Canada’s infrastructure ambitions will require a stronger national talent pool built around skills, demand driven training and employer investment. Read together, the reports make a useful distinction. More courses are not automatically the same thing as more capability. The SME research is especially clear on that. Smaller employers often have limited HR capacity, competing operational demands and uncertainty about whether training will pay off. Making a program free or inexpensive does not remove those barriers.
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