Adult Training Archives - SRDC

Advancing a Sustainable Buildings Workforce for Canada

Wallaa Daramlly — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:57:44 +0000

CAGBC and partners are conducting labour market research on employment trends and demographics analysis, as well as developing training curricula to grow and reskill the green construction workforce to support decarbonization of Canada’s buildings and help meet 2030 greenhouse gas reduction targets. Using a mixed-methods approach, SRDC is supporting both ongoing monitoring and impact evaluation across all program components, including labour market information (LMI), stakeholder engagement activities, employer-facing tools, and training resources developed by CAGBC and its partners.

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CAGBC Transition Planning Project Evaluation

Wallaa Daramlly — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 19:48:27 +0000

Led by the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC), the Transition Planning Project: A Tool for Accelerating High Performance Building Codes across Canada provides guidance to building owners and industry practitioners on decarbonization transition planning across their portfolios. To support this objective, the project is developing a Transition Planning Guide and a series of asset class-specific Transition Planning Playbooks, as well as providing workshops to support building owners and implementers in pursuing decarbonization of buildings.

The evaluation objectives are to assess overall project effectiveness, including:

Program reach, engagement, and participant satisfaction;
To what extent project implementation affected project outcomes;
Changes in participant knowledge, confidence, and readiness to apply transition planning concepts in practice.

The data collection plan includes a pre-post workshop design combined with qualitative data collection, including in-person observation at the two Toronto workshops and two focus groups.

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Strategic Learning Partner for PIAAC Research Initiative

Wallaa Daramlly — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 15:26:17 +0000

FSC has partnered with SRDC to launch a new research initiative to advance the use of the OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) data in addressing critical gaps in Canada’s skills development ecosystem. SRDC‘s role includes the following activities: Support for the FSC’s call for proposals to fund up to 10 research projects that strengthen evidence on the role of skills in driving productivity, prosperity, and well-being, and on the mechanisms through which skills are developed, retained, and lost, using PIAAC data; provision of subject matter and methodological expertise to support delivery of the project; conducting one or more research project(s) that complements the selected funded projects, filling in strategic gaps that are not addressed through the Call for Proposals and/or that relate to SRDC’s specific areas of expertise; and organizing and facilitating a PIAAC Research Seminar in Toronto during fall 2026, to generate dialogue and sharing between researchers.

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Scaling & Replicator Strategic Evaluation and Learning Support for FSC

Wallaa Daramlly — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 15:12:24 +0000

SRDC is undertaking several evaluations within new categories of Future Skills Centre (FSC) projects. The SCALE initiative invited existing FSC partners whose projects were ready for the next scale-up phase to apply for additional funding to advance their projects along a clearly defined scaling pathway. The projects were selected to answer pressing strategic questions that represent gaps in knowledge and/or practice – and around which FSC investment strategies are oriented. The projects embrace ongoing testing of program feasibility and effectiveness derived from specified scaling objectives. The REPLICATE initiative funds FSC partners whose projects present the best evidence of effectiveness and impact to conduct replication projects with up to two or three different partners working in different geographical locations. The projects test the feasibility of replication as further proof of the effectiveness of the program and help to further build up a cohort of partnerships ready to move towards full scaling and sustainability, as well as test replication as a strategy for project sustainability.

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Green Futures Training Partnership: a CBTU and SMART Canada Project

Wallaa Daramlly — Sat, 02 Aug 2025 14:29:29 +0000

This project is a partnership between CBTU, SMART Canada, SkillPlan, and SRDC to develop and deliver green training for sheet metal workers across Canada. The five-year project aims to provide green training to more than 2,000 apprentices and journeypersons in three key regions across the country. The project will feature the development and delivery of a ‘SMART Canada Green Seal Certificate’ for apprentices and journey workers as well as the modernization and digitization of all SMART Canada apprenticeship training.

In partnership with the project partners, SRDC and SkillPlan are leading the needs analysis, including a blueprint of supports for in-class and virtual training as well as a certification framework and associated implementation plan. SRDC is also leading the research design and evaluation of the project. This includes testing and measuring the delivery and training results of the project and sharing these results amongst a variety of stakeholders to contribute to better practices and outcomes among the sheet metal and roofing trades and on a larger scale across the skilled trades industry.

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National Training System to Ensure Low-Carbon Building Performance to Reduce Energy Consumption

Wallaa Daramlly — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 18:09:01 +0000

SkillPlan, in partnership with the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers and Local Unions (IAHFIAW), Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU), Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC), Climate and Industry Research Team (CIRT), and Building Efficiency Resources (BER), is supporting Canada’s climate and low-carbon economy goals by developing, implementing, and evaluating a national energy assessment training program for the Insulator Heat and Frost Red Seal trade. The project will train both unionized and non-unionized journeypersons and apprentices in the Insulator Heat and Frost Red Seal trade with technical, operational, and communication tools to upgrade their knowledge and skills, and develop their leadership capacity.

SRDC is leading a comprehensive needs analysis to support the design of the program training. SRDC will also support this project through developing a comprehensive evaluation framework and protocols, conducting fieldwork, data quality control, analysis, and knowledge dissemination.

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Newcomers with Remote Information and Career Help in British Columbia and Yukon (ENRICH BCY)

Wallaa Daramlly — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 19:26:14 +0000

Led by Douglas College and in partnership with the Yukon Literacy Coalition, this project’s overarching goals are to enhance newcomer settlement and integration in rural and remote regions of British Columbia and the Yukon (BCY). Our approach emphasizes community engagement and local partnerships to co-design online tools and resources that complement rather than duplicate existing in-person services. Specific areas of focus include developing pre-arrival information to enhance migration pathways; facilitating social and economic integration to promote newcomer retention and address local skill and labour needs; supporting truth and reconciliation through the integration of First Nations history, culture, and governance into settlement services; and addressing gaps in existing community and settlement services to improve newcomers’ access to supports. Consultations (in person and remote) with newcomers, employers, First Nations representatives, community leaders, and service providers are used to i) collect information on local contexts, strengths, services, and needs, and ii) co-design and develop ideas for service enhancements to pilot with local communities. Our evaluation focuses on tracking outcomes, identifying areas for improvement, and capturing lessons learned for further enhancement related to program design and delivery.

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Strategic Evaluation and Learning Support for the Future Skills Centre 2025

Wallaa Daramlly — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 20:58:11 +0000

Since 2020, the Future Skills Centre (FSC) has supported the development, refinement, or expansion of approaches to developing skills for workers from a variety of backgrounds and in a variety of sectors. These innovation projects are required to mobilize knowledge and evidence among key stakeholders, institutions and decision-makers for the purposes of improving policies and practices in Canada. SRDC is developing a mix of retrospective and prospective evaluation approaches for a subset of these projects, dependent on the timelines and stage of development of each project. These involve quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis using document and data review, interviews with project partners and their subcontractors, implementation evaluation, and theory of change or logic model development. SRDC’s learning and evaluation framework is designed to capture what has been learned from these projects for the future development of the skills ecosystem in Canada.

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Expanding Apprenticeship Success Through Improved and Enhanced System of Technology (EAST Project)

Wallaa Daramlly — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 20:11:39 +0000

SkillPlan, BC Construction Industry Skills Improvement Council, in partnership with Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU), Provincial Building Trades Councils (PBTC), U7 SOLUTIONS, British Columbia Colleges (BCC), and the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC), are providing online educational tools, resources, and materials to support apprentices progressing in and obtaining certification in an apprenticeship in the Red Seal trades. This project will be delivered across Canada. More specifically the project seeks to firstly improve the quality of training in the skilled trades by utilizing a structured, integrated, and accessible online training system and secondly to support Red Seal trades partners to create safe and inclusive workplaces of equity-deserving groups, including women, youth, newcomers, Indigenous and racialized persons, persons with disabilities, as well as low-skilled individuals by expanding training platform and developing new courses. SRDC is helping to test and measure the results of this project through a mixed-methods approach which will include administrative data from online platforms, surveys, and interviews.

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Analysis of the Labour Market Challenges and Workforce Development Needs of BC’s Non-Profit Housing Sector

Wallaa Daramlly — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 16:35:43 +0000

Non-profit housing providers face significant challenges in recruiting and retaining staff due to increasingly complex tenant needs, an aging workforce, and the necessity for specialized knowledge in asset management and energy efficiency. Staffing shortages and the difficulty of attracting professionals to non-urban areas exacerbate these issues. Additionally, there is a need for Indigenous-led training programs and the potential professionalization of housing-related careers. This project aims to address these challenges by scanning relevant secondary data sets to capture insights into labour market characteristics and trends relevant to the non-profit housing sector’s workforce as well as develop and implement a survey of provincial sector workers that identifies opportunities for capacity building and policy work to support BC’s non-profit housing sector.

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