Thank you, Mr. Chair, co-chairs, and members.
I'm very pleased to have been invited to appear here today in relation to your study “Fixing the Skills Gap: Addressing Existing Labour Shortages in High Demand Occupations”. I will provide you with some context in relation to the automotive repair and service industry.
Repair and service establishments exist in every community across Canada. Given our vast geography, they reflect the necessity of vehicle ownership. In fact, there are over 21 million vehicles on Canadian roads, and more than 306,000 Canadians are employed in over 66,000 businesses across Canada. Fifty-five percent of these businesses employ one to four workers. The automotive aftermarket sector reached $18.7 billion in retail sales in 2009, and this was at the height of the economic downturn.
Performance Driven, the 2009 labour market study, noted that employers were reporting approximately 13,000 unfilled positions and that 37% of these were for automotive service technicians. Overall, 29% of employers in the industry have one or more unfilled positions, and this is impacting business growth. Related to this, a majority of employers—58%—said that their “new hires are not job-ready”.
Why is the private sector experiencing difficulty in finding sufficiently skilled people in certain fields? For our industry, the number one reason is the pace of technology advancements. Vehicle technologies are mainly responsive to government regulation—that is, aggressive fuel economy, emissions targets, and safety. As a result, 75% of new and emerging technologies are related to electronics and engine fuel systems. These advancements are comprehensive and complex. The skills impact is significant.
Second is essential skills. These important foundational skills impact the success of continuing learning and ongoing professional development. Those that are key to our industry occupations are critical thinking and communications.
Third is business skills. The importance of owner-operator business skills and the further development of those skills were noted in our Performance Driven study. These are busy people who are balancing many tasks every day. As a result, they often omit themselves from any training planning. Improved business practices would help them better schedule work flow and calculate how many technicians they actually need on staff and on the floor at a time, thus impacting productivity and profitability.
What are some key considerations in addressing and fixing the skills gap? Number one is labour market information. Continuity and currency of available labour market information—at the national, provincial, and local level—need to be coordinated. Further to this, better linkages need to be made among technology innovation, the skills impact for a workforce, and labour market pressure points.
Comprehensive LMI that examines skills pressure points and leads to the development of skills training that reflects technology demands will ultimately better support those seeking employment or those proactively trying to maintain their employment or grow their career. Applicants need current skills that reflect current technologies and workplace and customer expectations and safety.
Secondly, labour market information needs to lead to services that stakeholders—that is, employers, employees, and job seekers—can easily access and utilize.
Labour market data itself may not help a small-business owner. He does not have the time or expertise to interpret the data to his own situation; however, what they will respond to and invest in is a service or resource that will help them meet their recruitment and retention challenges. This is important. A skills assessment tool that supports the recruiting process, and that points to specific skills upgrading to improve a candidate's or employee's productivity, will get traction. To be relevant and useful, these kinds of tools need to be developed and updated based on current LMI.
Number three: harness available labour market expertise, and connect. This is a complex issue, fixing the skills gap, and a mechanism to connect governments with stakeholder expertise in a meaningful ongoing dialogue about the development and implementation of solutions will be key. An expanded service such as the “Working in Canada” website is positive, but unless connections are made to technical skills assessment tools, essential skills assessment tools, and available skills development opportunities, we will miss a valuable opportunity to more fully support the client.
Currently, much of the training skills information is based on that needed to enter the industry. There also needs to be information for those trying to maintain their employment, stay current, and transition within the industry. When labour supply and demand are this tight, you need to keep the workers that you do have current and employed.
There is a lot of potential here, and there are several organizations well positioned to support these kinds of enhancements. This expertise needs to be harnessed and exploited.
Number four: connect labour market information and skills required with various levels of education and training. Job readiness of those wanting to enter an industry can be improved if there are more proactive connections among national skills information, the labour market, and education and training. A system that would connect labour market data, employers, and education and training providers would provide better support to the job seeker, whether they are a young person, someone in transition, or a new Canadian.
Connecting educators at all levels with employers will help teacher, student, and parent understanding of skills expectations and the education and certification requirements that will increase job readiness. Again, linking with expertise in these areas is important.
Thank you for this opportunity. I look forward to your questions.