Government of Canada invests in foundational skills training and support for workers on Prince Edward Island

August 25, 2022              Charlottetown, PEI              Employment and Social Development Canada

Canada’s economic recovery is well underway. We have recovered 115% of the jobs lost during pandemic. In fact, our economic growth is beginning to outpace the ability of some employers to find workers.  The country has faced shifting demographics, new technologies, and different practices, such as gig and part-time work. New sectors like green technology are growing rapidly. The ways we work, such as teleworking and digitalization, are creating more options for people. Now, more than ever, it’s critical that workers have the foundational and transferable skills they need to adapt, and thrive in the evolving workforce of today.

Today, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough, announced that the Government of Canada is investing in 17 more organizations across Canada that are providing Canadians with the skills and support they need to succeed in the workforce. This $59.9 million investment through the Skills for Success program will provide skills training for over 52,000 Canadians.

Minister Qualtrough made the announcement at Workplace Learning PEI Inc. (WLPEI), in Charlottetown. WLPEI is receiving over $1.5 million to establish the ADAPT project.  The ADAPT project is a partnership between Workplace Learning PEI (WLPEI) and the Government of New Brunswick’s (GNB) Virtual Learning Strategy (VLS) adult-learner support model. This project utilizes the Government of New Brunswick’s proprietary tools for screening for learning disabilities (LDORI) and their assessment for foundational skills gaps (ESSA) to target clients with learning disabilities who are employed or entering employment in Prince Edward Island.

Building on WLPEI’s extensive employer experience and network, ADAPT is piloting VLS’s new service of applying the VLS support model, and their tools, to the workplace environment in order to secure necessary workplace accommodations for workers whose learning disabilities affect their workplace functioning. This funding will enable WLPEI to provide learning disability awareness workshops for roughly 100 employers, along with an essential skills assessment for 500 WLPEI clients, and Virtual Learning Strategist services for 150 clients with learning disabilities. 

The other projects across Canada being funded today will provide a wide range of services, supports, and skills training for workers, including:

• Neil Squire Society’s Digital Literacy Essential Skills: Digital Jumpstart project, which will help 300 participants with digital literacy upskill or prepare for the labour market.
• Strat HR Solutions’ Narrowing the Gender Gap: Empowering Women through Literacy Programmes with Skill for Success project, which will train 200 domestic violence survivors and racialized women of all skill levels across Canada to better prepare for and retain employment so they can succeed in today’s labour market.
• La Factry’s Canada Créatif project, which will implement a training program that will assist 375 French-speaking newcomers across Canada to develop their socio-emotional skills.

The Government of Canada launched the Skills for Success program in 2021, with a focus on nine foundational and transferable skills that Canadians need to participate, adapt and thrive in learning, work and life. They include foundational skills like writing, reading and numeracy, and socio-emotional skills – the human skills required for effective social interaction, such as collaboration, communication, problem solving, adaptability, and creativity and innovation.

The Skills for Success program is part of the Government of Canada’s ongoing effort to address the immediate and long-term training needs, particularly for under-represented groups in the labour market, including Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities and racialized Canadians. The projects funded by the Skills for Success program will contribute to an estimated 90,000 skills training opportunities, helping deliver on the Government’s commitment to create 500,000 new training and work opportunities for Canadians.