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The impact of the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic has, in general, been considerably more severe on entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) than on larger organizations. This fact is critical to note since SMEs are the backbone of the Canadian economy, employing almost 90 per cent of all Canadians who work in the private sector. SMEs faced significant challenges even before the pandemic. Skills gaps and labour shortages have long been a feature of the Canadian economy and they remain a top concern for SMEs. The purpose of this report is twofold: First, it reviews existing research on SMEs' and entrepreneurs' skills, upskilling and training needs, and proposes options for better supporting them as they strive to recover from the pandemic and prepare for what comes next. In particular, this review highlights barriers and challenges faced by entrepreneurs who are members of equity-seeking groups, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, this report presents preliminary results from a survey on skills and competencies (a survey that is still in the field as of June 2021) and from a set of focus groups conducted as part of the same project.

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The [American Association of Community Colleges] AACC competencies were initially developed to help provide guidance in developing community college leaders because of predictions of a leadership crisis in the two year college sector. Since their creation, the competencies have been used to direct topics in leadership development programs and to guide future leaders about what skills are critical to master. Yet scant research exists on the use of the competencies on practice or on analysis of the competencies within the changing higher education climate.

Chapters include: Historic overview of the AACC competencies / Nan Ottenritter (pp. 7-17); Future Leaders Institute: rising leaders and the AACC competencies / Desna L. Wallin (pp. 19–28); A holistic perspective of leadership competencies / Pamela L. Eddy (pp. 29-39); The AACC competencies in action / Chris Duree and Larry Ebbers (pp. 41-52); Competencies in the heartland / Brent Cejda (pp. 53-61); Doing the right thing: ethical leadership and decision making / Regina L. Garza Mitchell (pp. 63-72); Reading the competencies through a feminist lens / Kristin Bailey Wilson and Elizabeth Cox-Brand (pp. 73-83); Reflections from the field: voices of experience / Delores E. McNair and Daniel J. Phelan (pp. 85-95); Next steps: looking to the future / George R. Boggs (pp. 97-107); Leaders, leveraging, and abundance: competencies for the future / Richard L. Alfred (pp. 109–120).

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[This report] analyzes the growing need for qualified nurses. The study projects that the economy will create 1.6 million job openings for nurses through 2020. Yet, there will not be enough nurses to fill those openings. [The authors] project the nursing workforce will be facing a shortfall of roughly 200,000 nursing professionals by 2020. One of the reasons for the growing demand is due to changing demographics; older nurses are retiring in large numbers, creating thousands of job openings. Another factor is the Affordable Care Act, which expands health insurance coverage to millions of job openings. In addition, nursing schools lack the faculty, facilities, and training sites to match the growing demand.

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Amidst slowing economic growth, global labour markets have shown resilience in 2023. Global unemployment has dropped to the lowest level since the outbreak of the [COVID-19] pandemic and labour force participation has recovered in most regions. Despite these positive headline indicators, fragility has emerged in working conditions, and a cost-of-living crisis has arisen from fast-rising energy and food prices. Employment growth in 2024 is projected to falter even though global unemployment will remain broadly unchanged. Major decent work deficits, which to a large degree predate the pandemic, are set to persist under these conditions - especially gender participation gaps, working poverty, and informality.

This [report] provides a comprehensive assessment of labour imbalances that arose with the recovery from the pandemic and exist alongside persistent decent work deficits. It analyses global patterns, regional differences, and outcomes across groups of workers. The report also offers labour market projections for 2024 and 2025. Finally, it presents trends in labour force participation, hours worked and employment growth and analyses their contributions to labour market imbalances.

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In Canada, youth apprenticeships have been promoted as an educational alternative that leads to the development of valuable skills, allows for the opportunity to earn an income while learning and helps youth to gain a head start into lucrative, creative and in-demand careers. Yet, these programmes have remained rather marginal and continue to be perceived as being of lower-status compared to traditional post-secondary educational pathways, such as those leading to university or community college. In this paper, [the authors] draw on interview data with former youth apprentices in the province of Ontario to explore their reasons for entering apprenticeships in high school, their experiences in them and their own perceptions about the status and social recognition of apprenticeships. [The authors] suggest that policies regarding apprenticeship programmes in Canada need to expand their focus. While emphasis is currently placed on recruiting students by highlighting relatively utilitarian benefits, [the authors] argue that more focus needs to be placed on the training offered to apprentices including the commitment of employers to provide quality training on the job, the integration of classroom and on-the-job training and the opportunity for apprentices to move from partial to full participation in communities of practice.

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An acute shortage of qualified instructors threatens to derail dual enrollment, an effective and popular college transition strategy, just as the movement is picking up steam. Financial incentives have helped some school districts increase the number of high school teachers who are credentialed to teach college-level courses to their students. But, to date, such efforts have led only to incremental progress. In order to fulfill the potential of dual enrollment to improve high school completion, postsecondary success, and career readiness - particularly for underserved young people - it is essential to develop systemic solutions to the staffing crisis. Only through new approaches that merge the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate education systems can we address the host of logistical, political, and cultural challenges that have long stymied individual districts and colleges. This brief is intended for policymakers, education system leaders, and dual enrollment advocates who are considering what it will take to build long-term strategies that significantly expand the supply of instructors qualified to teach college in high school.

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This research study examines the supply and demand for postsecondary healthcare degrees in the state of Oregon. The purpose of this report is to discover any areas of shortage within Oregon's postsecondary healthcare education programs, and the barriers these programs face in expanding to meet student and employment market demand. The report finds that the primary area of shortage in Oregon's postsecondary healthcare education and healthcare employment to be in the area of registered nursing. There is a surplus of qualified students looking to enter Oregon's registered nursing programs, and a shortage of graduates to meet employment demand across every region of Oregon. There is a bottleneck occurring within Oregon's registered nursing programs that is preventing the supply of qualified students from meeting employment market demand for registered nurses. This bottleneck is a primary cause of Oregon's registered nursing employment shortage. The data suggests that Oregon may be able to eliminate its registered nursing shortage through expansion of these registered nursing programs if the barriers preventing expansion are addressed.

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The movement to make American cities more sustainable, efficient and livable is perhaps the greatest new engine for urban economic growth, innovation and job creation in many decades. The American Solar Energy Society estimates that in 2006 alone, renewable energy and energy efficiency were responsible for $970 billion in industry revenues and 8.5 million jobs. This number will grow exponentially if our nation commits itself in earnest to reducing carbon emissions and making economy-wide improvements in energy efficiency. Unfortunately, America’s growing green economy faces a looming labor shortage in sectors like manufacturing, construction and installation. In a 2005 survey by the National Association of Manufacturers, 90 per cent of respondents indicated a moderate to severe shortage of qualified, skilled production employees like machinists and technicians. Similarly, the National Renewable Energy Lab has identified a shortage of skills and training as a leading barrier to renewable energy and energy efficiency growth. This labor shortage is only likely to get more severe as baby-boomers skilled in current energy technologies retire; in the power sector, for example, nearly one-quarter of the current workforce will be eligible for retirement in the next five to seven years.

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Career and technical education (CTE) continues to face an annual shortage of qualified teachers in the profession. This shortage has caused an increase in the use of alternative certification/licensure pathways across the United States. These alternative pathways are highly divergent from state to state. Limited research has investigated CTE teacher shortage and the alternative certification/licensure requirements that contribute. Using archival data, this correlational study looked to determine if CTE alternative certification/licensure requirements can predict CTE teacher shortages. Logistic regression analysis was used to review all 50 states and the District of Columbia and determine if any of the criterion variables predicted CTE teacher shortage. After analysis, it was determined that none of the criterion variables of academic degree, work experience, mandatory testing, and program length was statistically significant in predicting CTE teacher shortage.

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This report evaluates factors contributing to healthcare labour shortages in Canada and investigates the inter-relationships between access to health services, the number of healthcare providers, compensation rates and migration patterns. Nurses and other care providers can increase the efficiency of healthcare delivery through expanding scopes of practice or filling gaps when there is a shortage of family or specialist physicians. Increasing wages would also help mitigate shortages in the field of nursing. However, there are, as well, shortages of nurses and other healthcare providers. The report also proposes an increase in the number of places in medical schools, currently so low that a significant number of Canadians go abroad for medical school, incurring higher personal expenses and a lower likelihood of securing a residency position if they return to Canada to complete their training. Other recommendations are to increase the number of residency positions, both for Canadian medical graduates and internationally trained ones, particularly in disciplines projected to be in short supply, along with encouraging immigration of physicians and medical students.

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