Human Resources Committee on Oct. 9th, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Genuis.

Ms. Fancy, you have six minutes.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you very much, Mr. Henderson and Dr. Walker for coming today.

I'd like to begin by welcoming everybody with a sincere thank you. I'd also like to welcome our colleague Ms. Royer who is able to tune in with us today.

As a mom of a teenager, a former educator and a new member of Parliament, I've spent a lot of time talking with youth over the last two decades, especially in my riding of South Shore—St. Margarets, talking about some of the struggles that youth are facing, whether it's finding that first-time job, securing stable hours or being able to access the right training and supports to help build a meaningful career.

I'm going to tag-team between Mr. Henderson and Dr. Walker today.

Dr. Walker, you're at the forefront of connecting with employers and post-secondary institutions to create more work integration and learning opportunities. Based on your experience, what are some of the most effective ways in which we can expand these types of partnerships, particularly in smaller rural areas, so that all Canadians have equitable access to building a career?

[Valerie Walker]

We also have talked to people all across the country, including youth, educators and employers. We hear every time, “Our region is unique. It's different from everywhere else in Canada. We need a customized solution for this place.” Despite that, it turns out that about 80% of the needs, whether helping with the mentoring of a student or helping with the training of an HR manager, are consistent.

There's an opportunity, which is what we do with money from the federal government, to build the capacity, the tools and resources—the 80% that is common across the country for folks in rural Canada as well as those in big urban centres—and then work with those people to help them customize for their particular need, whether it's a certain industry, a certain region in our country or a certain student demographic in that last 20%. There's a huge opportunity to get a gain in scale through programs like that.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you so much for your rural-centric lens and being able to regionalize different programs and services.

Mr. Henderson, I'm so glad you spoke today about the importance of partnerships—like your fellow colleagues speaking with us today—between government, employers and educational institutions to address some of these skill gaps.

From your perspective, how can we strengthen these partnerships to ensure that youth across Canada, including those in rural and smaller communities, have access to the same high-quality training in employment opportunities in these fast-growing sectors?

[Robert Henderson]

I think the student work placement program has shown itself to be an effective delivery method for work-integrated learning and connecting students to employers.

Now it can go into a next stage of evolution where, as Dr. Walker was saying, there are things like microcredentialing and other ways of identifying the practical skills competencies that students require. There could be more criteria attributed to work-integrated learning programs and student work placement programs to encourage SMEs to adopt innovative training around artificial intelligence and other means that are going to be absolutely critical to, as Dr. Walker said, 80% of the needs that are common.

Artificial intelligence is industry agnostic. Every single industry is going to have to adopt it in the future. The student work placement program could be an exceptionally successful delivery mechanism—and it already is—for some government priorities around training, microcredentialing, skills delivery and practical skills that sometimes evade post-secondary institutions. As we all know, our country is second to none in the delivery of academic training, but sometimes practical business training is more challenging. A program that already has work-integrated learning is a perfect delivery mechanism for those skills and priorities that the government needs to inculcate in our young people.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you so much, Mr. Henderson.

Dr. Walker, you've spoken about the importance of collaboration across all of these sectors to prepare youth for the rapidly changing economy.

From your perspective, what more can we as a federal government do to help encourage stronger engagement from both private and public sectors, as well as through non-profit organizations, to help address these skill gaps in supporting youth in their transition to meaningful work?

[Valerie Walker]

It sounds really easy, but the answer is more dialogue between employers and educators.

We are in the midst of a year-long initiative looking at what post-secondary reform could be in this country to set us up so that post-secondaries by 2035 are active contributors to Canada's GDP and not drawers upon GDP.

This is a provincial-level issue. There is a need right now to talk amongst each other, and not just talk, but make it possible to create the incentives and levers for leaders within the post-secondary systems to update and change their means of teaching and learning to allow more connectivity and fluidity between school and work earlier in a student's degree or diploma and throughout one's career.

It's a lot of work, but that has to start with dialogue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you.

Madam Gill, go ahead, please, for six minutes.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Côte-Nord—Kawawachikamach—Nitassinan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank Mr. Henderson and Ms. Walker for their testimony.

First, since you both represent organizations that make the connection between employers and graduates who want to enter the workforce, I'd like to know what you're seeing, especially among young people. Once people finish their studies, they can theoretically enter the workforce, but some graduates can't find jobs. What's the gap or need that explains that? We're dealing precisely with the issue of unemployment here.

Also, why aren't employers managing to recruit employees? What respective connections are you able to make, given the very different natures of your two organizations?

[Valerie Walker]

There are several things that matter, but I will speak to one in the interest of time.

There is a huge opportunity to help students articulate the skills they have and make it easier for them to draw a connection to the job an employer is looking to fill.

I can give you an example in my own life. I have a Ph.D. in heart physiology, but that does not matter in my job and it did not matter in any of my jobs. What did matter was my resilience, problem-solving, critical thinking and all of those skills.

You need to learn how to talk about what skills you have, not just the stuff you know. There's a very big opportunity for them, on the student side, to make that connection quicker and easier.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Côte-Nord—Kawawachikamach—Nitassinan, QC]

Is that really what you're doing, Ms. Walker? You talked about lesson plans in schools, for example. I was a higher-education teacher myself. We're talking about the skills recorded with the students. They know what they're going to learn and how it will be useful to them. As you said, it's about taking know-how into account, not just knowledge.

You're talking about educational institutions, but I don't like to talk about them as much, since they fall under provincial jurisdiction—Quebec, in my case. However, if we set aside knowledge, what young people are really lacking is an understanding of what they're capable of doing. What about on the employer side?

Thank you.

[Valerie Walker]

Specifically on the potential federal role—and we're in early stages of doing this ourselves—my answer is to create a microcredential specifically for work-integrated learning. We know that students with WIL have more of those connections to the workplace, but if you could create a digital badge or a microcredential that very specifically outlines the knowledge, skills and competencies a student gains as a result of that WIL, and then let them put it on their LinkedIn profile, CV or résumé so they clearly know what that is and can talk about it with the employer, I'm quite confident that this is a specific example of how we could make that transition from school to work a lot smoother for our youth.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Côte-Nord—Kawawachikamach—Nitassinan, QC]

Do you think that's one of the reasons for unemployment, particularly among young graduates?

[Valerie Walker]

I think their inability to make those connections is part of the problem. I wouldn't classify that as the primary reason.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Côte-Nord—Kawawachikamach—Nitassinan, QC]

Thank you very much, Ms. Walker.

I would like Mr. Henderson to answer the same questions.

[Robert Henderson]

As my colleague said, especially where there are small and medium-sized enterprises, which hire the most students, our research has indicated that 50% don't use social media, job boards or anything in order to recruit these students. They simply call some of their peers, who are also not connected. Work-integrated learning allows a student a connection through academia directly to employers who would never know that their talents exist.

Going back to what we were talking about before and what we called the soft skills—we would say success skills—the federal government has funded, there is no better way to inculcate those skills than through the practical application of them in business. Those are simply the skills that are most valuable. Our labour market research says that those soft skills—things like what we are doing today with presentation skills—can't be learned from a book. You have to do these things to then be able to do them, and you can only do that on the job.

We're finding that those soft skills are even more valuable in my vertical of biotechnology, which is one of the highest-educated verticals in the world. Those soft skills are absolutely critical for small and medium-sized enterprises, which have so few employees that they're doing way more than just what their job title and job description entail. The student placement program has given the connection to employers who didn't know this job market even existed, and it immediately gets them those soft skills that are really challenging for colleges and universities to inculcate.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Côte-Nord—Kawawachikamach—Nitassinan, QC]

Your work actually bridges employers and students, but that means there's a gap on the employer side and on the educational institution side. That's why a bridge can't be built. That's more or less what you're saying, isn't it? I certainly don't want to minimize your work, not at all.

Obviously, I imagine that universities want to meet the needs of the workforce and that employers should also go to universities.

I'm wondering if there's a gap there as well. I'm not saying that it's up to you to fill it or that you aren't doing so, but I believe that's more or less what you're telling us today.

[Robert Henderson]

Yes, I think that is exactly it, which is why we're so passionate about work-integrated learning. It's because the universities' job, even in the funding model, is to get them an education; it's not necessarily to get them a job. The employers are looking toward this program and those bridges we provide to bridge that gulf between what academia provides and what the employers need.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you.

Thank you, Madame Gill.

We'll go to Mr. Reynolds for five minutes.

[Colin Reynolds, Conservative, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Thank you.

Thank you to the witnesses for coming in today. My first question is for Mr. Henderson.

There is a lot of talk about microcredentialing. Can you explain that?

[Robert Henderson]

Microcredentialing is essentially microskills certification. Some of the words meld into the others. It is a combination of a practical application and measurable application of a skill combined with an academic credential. Sometimes they're very specific. In my industry, for example, the difference between manufacturing and biomanufacturing is essentially a skill called good manufacturing practices, but that's a very practical application of it. It can't be taught only theoretically; it has to be shown within a laboratory setting. There have been many, not only academic institutions but also private sector companies that are looking to apply a microcredential allowing you to say you have enough education, because there is an educational component that's required for it, combined with the practical application and measurability of that skill. Then you can say you have a microcredential in, for example, good manufacturing practices.

This is a bridge between what the previous committee member was mentioning, where academia credentialling ends and the practical application begins. Just because somebody has a B.Sc. in biology or biochemistry does not necessarily mean they are ready to work in the lab in bioprocessing or in a biomanufacturing position. That's where these microcredentials, as technology advances, become a really great opportunity for the country, for those companies that require not a broad array of skills but sometimes very specific skills that are critical to their success.

[Colin Reynolds, Conservative, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

It's essentially like a trades apprenticeship, in which you have a combination of academic and hands-on training.

[Robert Henderson]

Sure, but it's probably much more focused on the types of skills that employers require. That is really what's been lacking and the gap that I think academic institutions and organizations such as ours are trying to fill.

[Colin Reynolds, Conservative, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Thank you.

My next question is for Dr. Walker.

What industry sectors do you see as having the biggest demand to fill jobs that just aren't being filled?

[Valerie Walker]

I will state that I'm not a labour market economist, but—