Rhonda Barnet
CEO of Palette Skills
Upskill Canada is a new initiative to connect employers with the talent and skills needed to perform in high-demand roles.
How can a country that boasts one of the most highly skilled labour forces in the world be facing a shortage of skilled workers? According to a recent whitepaper on the workforce by Palette Skills, the problem is not a lack of workers but underutilization of the ones we have. “A highly skilled workforce is only a market advantage if you know how to use it,” says Rhonda Barnet, CEO of Palette Skills, a national non-profit whose purpose is to connect Canada’s most innovative companies with the talent they ne6ed to grow. “Ensuring Canadian companies fully utilize this workforce requires recognizing that existing skills an individual has and their potential for applying those skills in new and different ways,” says Barnet.
Ensuring Canadian companies fully utilize this workforce requires recognizing that existing skills an individual has and their potential for applying those skills in new and different ways
A skilled workforce that isn’t being used to its fullest potential can be a double-sided drag on productivity. “On the one hand, companies aren’t tapping into the skills they need to grow their businesses, and, on the other, Canadians aren’t unlocking their full economic and human potential,” she says. Palette Skills views the problem as one of talent acquisition that requires a two-fold solution: the ability for hiring companies to connect to skilled talent when they need it and the ability to qualify potential candidates that can do the job successfully and quickly.
New investment designed to upskill workers across the country
Thanks to recently being named national delivery partner of a federal government initiative called Upskilling Canada, Palette Skills can now help implement that two-fold solution. This $250 million investment over three years, issued through Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada’s Upskilling for Industry Initiative fund, will be used to upskill 15,000 workers across the country. “Palette Skills’ core competencies as an organization are to develop best practices in employer-led program design that leads to job placement, and to connect with diverse sets of partners across the ecosystem to deliver these programs,” says Barnet. “Through Upskill Canada, we now have the opportunity to scale this work across the country,” she says.
Using the research insights, models, and lessons learned over the past five years, Palette Skills will connect an ecosystem of employers and training partners to collaborate in new ways and help transition mid-career workers, including those from underrepresented groups, into new careers in high-demand roles. “It will put employers at the centre of the program design process and result in new talent pipelines that help address the need for workers across key high-growth sectors, such as digital technology, cyber security, agricultural technology, advanced manufacturing, clean technology and biomanufacturing, with a particular focus on small and medium businesses (SMEs)” she says.
Introducing the Palette model
In running the Upskill Canada program, Palette Skills will apply its own model for upskilling, which it has used to help over 500 individuals transition into new careers. Palette Skills attributes the model’s success to two factors—designing programs with the general standards that job candidates need to meet and taking a holistic approach to skills development, prioritizing job placement as the primary metric of success. The six key components of Palette Skills’ upskilling framework include: demand-driven, employer led, rapidly delivered, potential focused recruitment, experiential and industry-integrated, and robust job placement support. The Palette Skills model will create the common standard that all program proposals supported through Upskill Canada will be required to address to secure funding. “Ultimately, Upskill Canada will drive lasting improvements to the upskilling ecosystem by catalyzing close collaborations across training providers, employers, and other partners to design and deliver upskilling programs and shift mindsets around talent development and utilization,” says Barnet.
Potential employer partners can register with Palette Skills via the Upskill Canada registration portal.
