CBJ JANUARY 2026

53 IT’S TIME FOR A NATIONAL SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE STRATEGY 52 I n the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians are retiring or are being laid off in greater numbers and taking their much-needed skills and experience out of the workforce. At the same time, many others are facing career disruptions and have had to quickly retool just to survive. AS WE WORK towards a long-term economic recovery, policy makers and postsecondary institutions need to ensure younger learners and mid-career professionals are acquiring the right mix of skills for the future. Often forgotten in the discussion around skills development are the critical ‘soft skills’ that are essential to every workplace and much sought-after by employers. It’s time for a national skills and experience strategy that includes a framework to credit soft skills in order to better address skills gaps across the country and prepare students for jobs of the future. Soft Skills Soft skills are non-technical, developed capacities that an individual must have to be effective in a job. Unlike technical skills, soft skills traditionally lack a crediting framework due to the difficulty in quantifying them. Employment and Social Development Canada’s pan-Canadian skills taxonomy, which describes hundreds of skills and competencies, includes examples of soft skills such as social perceptiveness or emotional intelligence, communication, critical Keith Monrose Maurice Chang WINTER 2021 « The Canadian Business Journal thinking and problem solving. A recruitment shift is underway where employers are emphasizing “fit,” asking job candidates about their ability to work in diverse teams and changing environments. Currently, many employers are spending significant time, energy and resources re-building individuals’ skillsets, changing their mindsets and fostering a culture teamwork. Such ‘soft’ skills and experiences should be table stakes for students who graduate from Canadian postsecondary institutions. The federal Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough, should introduce a formal measuring and recognizing of skills – including soft skills -- that learners acquire during their postsecondary studies. It is time for the Minister to act as the driver and invite academic institutions and industry to come together and create a universal framework starting with a common language of definitions and an accepted method to measure these skills. Only then can our academic institutions and employers plan more effectively to allocate critical skills needed to ensure short-term Many employers are spending significant time, energy and resources re-building individuals’ skillsets, changing their mindsets and fostering a culture teamwork.