Future Skills
Identifying, developing, replicating and scaling inclusive approaches that will strengthen the nation’s skills and training ecosystem.
Programs
ADaPT
The Advanced Digital and Professional Training Program (ADaPT) is an action-research project funded by the Future Skills Centre (external link) which equips new graduates with the Skills for Success Canadian employers are seeking, along with a paid internship. By focusing on youth from diverse groups and social science and humanities graduates, ADaPT is contributing to inclusive economic growth.
ADaPT is now partnered with TECHNATION (external link) and offers synchronous and asynchronous (self-directed) online learning modules, and operates regionally in southern Ontario, the Atlantic provinces, southern Alberta and is coming soon to B.C.
Study Buddy
The Study Buddy program is a collaboration between the Diversity Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University, Ontario Tech University (external link) , the Jean Augustine Centre (external link) , and the Lifelong Leadership Institute (external link) . We are supporting parents struggling to balance the responsibilities of work with their children’s rapid transition to online-learning due to the COVID-19 crisis. There is mounting evidence that shows that parents from marginalized groups and women entrepreneurs, who already face significant barriers to their success, are bearing the brunt of new stresses.
This free innovative program pairs parents and students with tutors to help them adjust to online learning through free tutoring.
ADaPT4Success
Looking to advance your career? ADaPT4Success will help you learn while you earn and gain important new skills.
ADaPT4Success helps people build the skills they need to succeed while getting practical work experience at the same time.
ADaPT : pour réussir
Vous cherchez à faire progresser votre carrière ? ADaPT : pour réussir vous aidera à recevoir un salaire tout en apprenant et à obtenir d’importantes nouvelles compétences.
ADaPT : pour réussir aide les gens à acquérir les compétences dont ils ont besoin pour réussir tout en acquérant une expérience de travail pratique.
Training And Work Placement
Are you searching for online learning, new industry skills, job search tips, experienced mentors or trusted career support to help you succeed?
Using our online tool you can find which of our many available upskilling, reskilling and job placement programs and services is the right one for you! These easy-to-answer questions will analyze your career development needs and program eligibility and take less than 10 minutes to complete.
Research Projects
The Diversity Institute is a research lead for the Future Skills Centre – Centre des Compétences futures (external link, opens in new window) (FSC-CCF), a forward-thinking centre for research and collaboration dedicated to preparing Canadians for employment success.
Survey on Employment & Skills
The Survey on Employment and Skills is conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research in partnership with the Future Skills Centre and the Diversity Institute. It began as a project designed to explore Canadians’ experiences with the changing nature of work, including technology-driven disruptions, increasing insecurity and shifting skills requirements.
Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey was expanded to investigate the impact of the crisis on Canadians’ employment, earnings and work environments. The project now includes four waves of data collection, from Spring 2020 to Autumn 2021.
Tutoring in the Time of COVID
Education is the foundation of social mobility and economic opportunity in Canada. But the education system has not served all children and youth equitably, and this has contributed to employment and wage gaps which have widened in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Tutoring in the Time of COVID project explores the importance of 1-1 and small group academic support for youth in underserved communities and the potential for tutoring to address learning and equity gaps.
Skills for the Post-Pandemic World
The COVID-19 pandemic has pulled the future of work into the present: digitization, work from home, and many other long-predicted developments are here now, and likely to stay.
The Skills for the Post-Pandemic World project tackles key questions facing policymakers, employers, training providers and workers. It is urgent that society turn to face the fundamental changes in the labour market precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and many players must rise to meet the new conditions of a post-pandemic world.
Labour Market Insights
This series from the Diversity Institute, in its role as a research lead for the Future Skills Centre, aims to provide timely analysis on current patterns of labour demand across Canadian regions, industries, and occupations. In the rapidly changing world of work, job seekers, policy makers, educators, and other stakeholders require labour market information that is up-to-date, granular, and relevant. The need has become even more critical during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the labour market has experienced the largest shock in recent history.
Reports in the Labour Market Insights from the Diversity Institute series cover a variety of topics relevant to the study of labour markets and are based on analyses of collated data from online job postings across Canada, as well as other traditional and innovative data sources. This project is funded by the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Centre.
Skills Next
Canadians’ needs for skills training and education are changing quickly.
In response, the Public Policy Forum (external link, opens in new window) , the Diversity Institute, and the Future Skills Centre (external link, opens in new window) have joined together to publish Skills Next, a series that explores what is working in workplaces, universities, and the labour market – and where workers are falling through the gaps in our skills training system.
Bridging the Technology Skills Gap
New Evidence-Based Approaches to Leveraging Diversity and Inclusion
In this five-year, Ontario Research Fund: Research Excellence project led by Dr. Wendy Cukier, scholars, industry and community partners will examine the discourses and data related to the skills gap and challenges that women, immigrants, persons with disabilities, and Indigenous people face in the Information and Communications Technology sector. This project seeks to develop policies, practices, and technologies to expand the talent pool and advance inclusion.
Past Programs and Projects
Ensuring Equitable Access to Work Integrated Learning in Ontario
This three-year, Ontario Human Capital Research and Innovation Fund project is evaluating and researching the barriers to work-integrated learning (WIL) for post-secondary students in Ontario through a series of interviews with institutional and employer stakeholders, and analysis of national student surveys.
The Diversity Institute conducts and coordinates multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder research and programming to address the needs of diverse Canadians, the changing nature of skills and competencies, and the policies, processes and tools that advance economic inclusion and success. Our action-oriented, evidence-based approach is advancing knowledge of the complex barriers faced by equity-deserving groups, leading practices to effect change, and producing concrete results.