Thank you, Mr. Chair. My comments today will reinforce some of the messages you've heard from some of my other sector council partners and perhaps shed a new light on our story.
First, I'd like to begin with what a sector council is. A sector council is a strategic partnership that identifies and implements industry-driven labour market solutions in key sectors of our economy. Our partners include employers, employees, educators, governments, and other stakeholders relevant to each sector.
It is important to note that some sector councils began their work in the late 1980s, while others are still under development. Today, sector councils reach close to 50% of Canada's labour market. They operate with both public and private funding and support.
Working together, as the alliance of sector councils are tasked, these not-for-profit, industry-driven, pan-Canadian organizations help to bridge that gap between policy and real world activity in the area of human resources strategy and labour market information. Despite increasing resource shortages, they operate in an environment of growing expectations and urgent needs to help Canada compete on the global stage.
In the 2002-05 period, sector councils involved over 290,000 employers, 182 business groups, and 115 labour unions. We worked with over 340 federal and provincial departments and agencies and convened over 3,000 workshops for some 55,000 employees. We developed or updated some 280 occupational standards and certified close to 150,000 workers to meet new occupations and competency requirements.
One of our primary areas of focus relates to labour market issues. We concentrate our efforts on preparing labour market information on particular sectors of the economy to assess what the skill shortages are and where they are likely to occur. We work with the education system to identify how students can be better equipped for industry through college and high schools. We prepare information on career possibilities for young people and those looking to change careers, and the education and training required for those possibilities.
We develop standards and certification for new entrants and for those working in the workforce to advance their skills development and facilitate their labour mobility. We work to increase the workforce participation of aboriginal people and find ways to ensure efficient foreign credential recognition. We help employers with hiring and retention of new immigrants. We address issues relevant to an aging workforce. We increase opportunities for Canadians with disabilities and we increase opportunities for women in non-traditional occupations. That's what the sector councils do in general.
The Canadian Supply Chain Sector Council, which I represent, is one of the newest sector councils. The Canadian supply chain sector includes all the functions involved in planning and managing the flow of goods and services from source to consumer, the entire product and service continuum from raw material source to the consumer.
The Canadian supply chain sector involves firms, both small and large, that employ an estimated 700,000 workers in this country. These workers can be identified in seven sub-functional areas: senior management, logistics information systems, warehousing, transportation, inventory and material control, purchasing, and marketing and sales. This range of function includes employees with strategic responsibilities such as a supply chain manager for a major retailer to those in an operational position such as longshoremen at one of Canada's major ports.
The issues we face at the Canadian Supply Chain Sector Council are similar to those of all other sector councils. As the nature of work is changing, there is a role for technology as a key business driver, yet only 12% of the employees who were part of our sector council study indicated they had the requisite skills to fully employ technology in their workplace.
As to the growth of the sector and shortages of quality employees, over the next two to four years, through normal growth in our industries, attrition, and retirement, we anticipate an increase in our employee needs within our sector of 12.3% on an annual basis, roughly 86,000 new hires per year. Where are these employees to come from and how will they develop the requisite skills to help our firms in the sector compete effectively?
There's currently a lack of awareness of jobs in the sector. There's a lack of clearly defined career paths and mobility within the sector. There are few strategies to link the professional certification offered by each one of the associations and few strategies to encourage or enable newcomers or older adults and other under-represented groups to seek employment in the sector. There's increased competition from other sectors for exactly the same people. As a result of these issues, our council will be working on a range of initiatives.
We are developing strategies that will result in increased public awareness of career opportunities within our sector; the identification and clarification of the global processes and policy best practices for assisting firms in our sector; the development of proactive initiatives to increase competitiveness of the Canadian supply chain sector; the creation of uniform national standards to ensure worker mobility across provinces; the identification and implementation of practical solutions to address current and future industry needs; the development and implementation of a career information initiative to market the sector to youth, newcomers, aboriginals and other key targets as a viable career choice.
We cannot, however, be successful without continued federal government support of the sector council program and the continued coordination amongst its various departments to encourage a more strategic approach to the labour market issues we have raised.
Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to appear before the committee.