Workplace diversity and inclusion

Entrepreneurship Among Persons with Disabilities

This project involves an environmental scan of Canadian and international peer reviewed and grey literature on entrepreneurship as an employment or income-generating option for people with disabilities. It also includes an analysis of relevant national and international policies and programs that are designed to support entrepreneurship for persons with disabilities, including their stated objectives, approaches, and – where possible – success outcomes. The review is, where possible, taking into consideration other intersecting factors (based on the GBA+ framework) that can affect people with disabilities in terms of their engagement and pursuit of entrepreneurship. The overall objective of this research is to provide ESDC with a better understanding of the issues, challenges, and opportunities that entrepreneurship offers people with disabilities to participate in the labour market.

Start-end date: February 2023 - July 2023
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

Skills for Success Proficiency Levels Development

In addition to providing detailed definitions of all nine skills, the SRDC report supporting the 2021 launch of the Skills for Success framework also includes preliminary proficiency level statements for each skill. These statements are intended to provide initial guidance for skill assessment but need further refinement to reflect a range of occupational requirements and better meet the needs of learners, trainers, and employers. As outlined in the SRDC report, more detailed proficiency levels and descriptors should be developed through an iterative, evidence-based, and collaborative process. In accordance with these recommendations, this project assembles an expert panel with experience in working with diverse learners and developing foundational and transferable skills resources and training programs in a range of regions and sectors. The panel is assisting SRDC in analyzing a range of occupational profiles, with priority for those in high demand, to identify tasks that are common and unique across occupations along with underlying skill dimensions and complexity levels for each task. The project goal is to work in collaboration with the panel and ESDC to reach consensus on improved proficiency statements for each of the nine skills, with examples drawn from our occupational task analysis of in-demand sectors.

Start-end date: January 2023 - January 2024
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

Strategic evaluation and learning support for the Future Skills Centre

Over the past four years, 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 up to 18 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 FSC liaisons, 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.

Start-end date: October 2022 - September 2023
Sponsor: Future Skills Centre

Women First: Building skills for success

Funded through Employment and Social Development Canada’s Women’s Employment Readiness Pilot, the WOMEN FIRST project is a multi-partner initiative aiming to leverage employment and skills training to address barriers faced by multiply-marginalized women. Led by PTP Adult Learning and Employment Programs (PTP) in collaboration with five service delivery providers across the country, the project aims to draw on partners’ collective expertise to develop, test, and evaluate pre-employment and skills development supports. Specifically, the project seeks to build knowledge about approaches to programming, curriculum, and wraparound supports that best serve women facing multiple structural barriers, including low-income women, Indigenous women, racialized women, 2SLGBTQ+ women, newcomer women, and women with disabilities. SRDC is working closely with partners to design and implement an evaluation of the project, including the program delivery across all six pilot sites and new Skill for Success curriculum developed by partner Alberta Workforce Essential Skills. In particular, SRDC is supporting an evaluation grounded in principles of intersectional feminism, anti-oppression, equity, and justice.

Start-end date: July 2022 - September 2023
Sponsor: PTP Adult Learning and Employment Programs

LGBTQ2S+ populations in the trades in Canada: Exploratory insights

Skilled trades are a key component of the Canadian economy; over 3 million Canadians (or 17% of labour force) work in the skilled trades. A number of equity-deserving groups are however under-represented in the skilled trades, including the LGBTQ2S+ population. Knowledge of the employment patterns of LGBTQ2S+ people in the skilled trades in Canada is currently limited. Very little is known, for example, about the employment patterns, such as income, employment status, hours worked as well as education, general health, work stress characteristics of LGBTQ2S+ individuals employed in the trades. There is also a gap in our understanding of the perceptions of and available supports for LGBTQ2S+ populations in the trades among the key stakeholders in Canada.

Given these research and data gaps, a better understanding of the current realities of this population with respect to working in the trades is important for evidence-based policy considerations. This project uses a mixed-methods approach, combining multi-cycle data from the Canadian Community Health Survey along with stakeholder interviews, to address the following questions: (1) What are the employment patterns and socio-demographic profiles of lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations in the trades in Canada? And (2) What are the perceptions of key stakeholders in terms of the experiences, barriers, and available supports for LGBTQ2S+ individuals in the trades? The findings from this project will be used to provide ESDC with insights and recommendations with respect to the participation of LGBTQ2S+ populations in the trades, with a particular emphasis of further areas for research and data development.

Start-end date: June 2022 - March 2023
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

Digital ReBoot: Co-designing supports with Indigenous women

As a part of the Women's Employment Readiness pilot, funded by Employment and Social Development Canada, Women in Resource Development Corporation (WRDC) is partnering with Pinnguaq and the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation to co-design responsive training for Indigenous women exploring a career in the trades and/or technology sectors. WRDC aims to build on its history of supporting women in Newfoundland and Labrador in connecting to meaningful careers in trades and technology, to co-design a customized career development program with Indigenous and Northern women and communities, including wrap-around supports needed to create an inclusive and enabling environment for Indigenous women to participate. Project goals are to help women from Indigenous and Northern communities in Labrador and Nunavut, to gain foundational digital literacy skills to increase access to education and employment, and to reduce barriers to entry to employment in the trades and technology sectors by coaching Northern employers to create a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce. SRDC is working closely with WRDC and Pinnguaq to co-design an evaluation framework, which will be implemented over the course of the project: this will include co-identifying key outcomes of interest with women in Nunatsiavut, NunatuKavut, Innu Nation, and Nunavut.

Start-end date: June 2022 - August 2023
Sponsor: Women in Resource Development Corporation

EMC Skills Evolution

EMC Skills Evolution is a national, industry-driven initiative that will provide new insights for scaling up sectoral micro-credentials, through the identification, validation, prioritization, and building of occupational competency frameworks for the manufacturing and other sectors, providing a sharable roadmap for developing and deploying workforce capability growth through a competency-based micro-credential approach. Specifically, this project seeks to define and apply an industry-driven, multi-sector methodology to micro-credential development and adoption, enabling manufacturers and employers in other sectors to more rapidly upskill and reskill their workforce, as well as to more quickly onboard newly recruited workers and facilitate broader recognition of relevant skills and workforce mobility.

Start-end date: June 2022 - August 2023
Sponsor: Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium

Insights on how to better identify, track, and measure gender and diversity outcomes in client reporting

ESDC’s skills and training programs provide Canadians with an important gateway to the Canadian economy by equipping them with the skills they need to participate in a changing labour market. To support this objective, ESDC is developing a Strategy to improve the Department’s capacity to better measure, monitor, assess, and address gender disparity when required, and promote access of underrepresented groups across a wide range of skills programs, both those administered directly by ESDC and those administered by third-party service providers. There is a pressing need to learn more about practical interventions that can be made to improve the breadth and depth of intersectionality in client reporting. SRDC will examine data collection and reporting practices that perpetuate barriers for Indigenous Peoples and other equity-deserving groups, identify best practices in other jurisdictions, and determine implications for ESDC. The final report will suggest feasible data collection and reporting practices that could improve both the rate of voluntary client reporting and the ability of programs to better measure and monitor outcomes experienced by clients.

Start-end date: February 2022 - May 2022
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

New Inclusive Economy

The New Inclusive Economy is a BC Sector Labour Market Partnership research project that is investigating inclusive employment from the employer (demand-side) of recruitment and retention of people with disabilities. The two-year research project is utilizing a combination of research methods, including case studies, an environmental scan, literature review, and primary data collection from employers across multiple sectors in BC including manufacturing, tech, and retail to answer the question: when people with disabilities and other barriers to employment are meaningfully employed, what are the enabling structural conditions, and how can these be amplified and mobilized in other contexts? As research partner, SRDC is primarily responsible for leading data collection activities with employers to generate evidence-based recommendations for identifying structural barriers and other effective approaches to increasing employer capacity to attract and retain employees with disabilities or other barriers to employment.

Start-end date: January 2022 - September 2023
Sponsor: Inclusion Powell River Society

Disability and the Workplace Research

CBDC Restigouche has engaged SRDC to assist with primary data collection with employers and persons with disabilities on issues related to inclusive employment. The project is seeking to learn directly from employers and persons with disabilities to identify best practices, challenges, and emerging trends on issues related to disability and the workplace in Canada, particularly as related to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). The primary research with employers is designed to capture the opportunities, needs, and challenges of SMEs related to recruiting, hiring, supporting, and retaining persons with disabilities. The survey of persons with disabilities aims to understand the challenges that persons with disabilities face in entering and succeeding in the workforce — with a special emphasis on small- to medium-sized business environments. The project is also documenting the challenges experienced by employers and persons with disabilities related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as identify trends and forecasts for adapting to a post-pandemic environment. Lastly, the research is examining how challenges faced by persons with disabilities interact with, and are compounded by, other social identities and life situations.

Start-end date: January 2022 - June 2022
Sponsor: CBDC Restigouche

Skills for Success Implementation Guidance Development

The launch of Skills for Success in May 2021 leverages the core strength of the Essential Skills framework while tightening the alignment with modern labour market needs, with a greater focus on a range of socio-emotional skills. This project’s main objective is to produce a document outlining key principles and emerging practices to guide the implementation of Skills for Success, reflecting the Government of Canada’s commitment to create and update training programs, resources, and assessment materials, facilitate training participation of vulnerable groups, and build the capacity of stakeholders who serve these populations. Our approach will combine environmental scan and literature review with the involvement of an expert advisory panel representing training and sectoral organizations with nation-wide networks, to develop three broad kinds of content: i) identification of learning needs for underrepresented groups (e.g., Indigenous people, racialized Canadians, persons with disabilities) and key sectors; ii) guiding principles for the design of tailored training and assessment tools to align with identified learner and sectoral needs; and iii) implementation examples and approaches from early adopters of Skills for Success. These will be synthesized into a final report to facilitate tool customization and program implementation aligned with the unique learning needs of groups underrepresented in the labour market, as well as the job performance needs of major sectors of the Canadian economy.

Start-end date: December 2021 - September 2022
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

Effective Employer Engagement in Newcomer Skills Development Programs

Effective Employer Engagement in Newcomer Skills Development Programs is a research project. It is designed to gather evidence to inform and improve approaches for employer engagement for both service provider organizations and employers. The project will engage a national network of immigrant employment councils (IECs), service provider organizations (SPOs), and employers to share and discuss project findings on the current modes of employer engagement and challenges the stakeholders face, as well as get their input to establish the criteria for best practices in employer engagement and to develop an employer engagement index. The project will produce tools to support SPOs in their employer engagement practices.

Start-end date: December 2021 - March 2023
Sponsor: Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council

Increasing Pathways to Employment

Funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada’s Feminist Response and Recovery Fund, Women in Resource Development Corporation (WRDC) is leading a project to advance inclusive skills development policies and practices to remove barriers that prevent women’s full participation. This project includes a partnership with the Canadian Career Development Foundation, the Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Community Employment Collaboration, and SRDC. The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified systemic and longstanding inequalities, with women disproportionately impacted by the crisis. Women have faced job losses and reduced work hours, shouldered the majority of the additional unpaid care responsibilities at home, and continue to be on the front lines of the pandemic. A feminist response and recovery includes accelerating women’s education and training to increase participation in higher paying, more secure careers. However, women are disproportionately impacted by inflexible training policies and practices that do not recognize their realities of under-employment and precarious employment, caretaking responsibilities, and other barriers they face in accessing pathways into professional and technology-based industries. This project centers the experience of women and of service providers using co-design methods to identify persistent and emerging barriers amplified by COVID-19, change systems, and accelerate progress on women’s equality.

Start-end date: December 2021 - March 2024
Sponsor: Women in Resource Development Corporation

Educational, Labour Market and Demographic Characteristics of Indigenous Peoples and Racialized Canadians

This project uses Canada-wide survey data from the Longitudinal International Study of Adults and potentially other surveys to generate in-depth knowledge to support education policy, including answers to the following questions: What are the educational attainment levels and institution types Indigenous and racialized Canadians attend, and how do they compare over time and with non-Indigenous and non-racialized Canadians? What are the fields of study and occupations that Indigenous and racialized Canadians pursue, compared with non-Indigenous and non-racialized Canadians? What are the sources of funding used by Indigenous and racialized Canadians to pursue PSE, compared with non-Indigenous and non-racialized Canadians? What barriers do Indigenous and racialized Canadians face in pursuing further education and training? Do they differ from those faced by non-Indigenous and non-racialized Canadians? What are the characteristics of Indigenous and racialized Canadians who face barriers to further education and training? Do the characteristics of those with barriers to further education and training (unmet learning need or want) differ from those with no unmet need or want? What are the labour market outcomes and earnings of Indigenous and racialized Canadians, compared with non-Indigenous and non-racialized Canadians? and Are there certain types of life events over time that correlate to (re-)entry into PSE and training for Indigenous and racialized Canadians, and do they differ from those faced by non-Indigenous and non-racialized Canadians?

Start-end date: November 2021 - March 2022
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

Employer Challenges with Adult Work-related Learning and Training: A Case Study of the Accommodation and Food Services Sector

In 2019, the federal government launched Future Skills, aimed at assisting Canadians in accessing programs and providing ways for employers and workers to meet the needs of an evolving workforce. Work-related learning and training programs for adults are important to the development of the Canadian workforce for many reasons. They help workers obtain and adapt their skills to remain relevant to labour market needs when other types of education and training may be less tailored to their needs. Employment focused training can be especially important to lower-income earners who may struggle financially to engage in learning that does not yield an immediate return. Work-related training is a means to train socio-demographic groups who could also be vulnerable to the impact of shifts in occupation and skills requirements due to artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. Accessible, employer-informed programming that addresses the complex financial and socio-cultural needs of vulnerable workers is likely essential for adult workers (and their employers) to thrive in the post-COVID-19 labour market. This project focuses on small-to-medium sized enterprises (SME), which are less likely to provide training opportunities to employees relative to large firms. The results will help to fill the evidence gap regarding work-related or work-based specific learning and training in Canada. Its findings and recommendations will help support the development of targeted approaches to work-related learning and training opportunities for Canadian adults.

Start-end date: October 2021 - March 2022
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

The Two-Eyed Seeing Network

While Indigenous youth could provide a significant source of local labour to industry in BC, they are often disengaged, not well networked, and left out of conversations about the future of skills and training. Focusing on sectors with high future demand (clean technology; clean energy; natural resource extraction and processing; marine shipping; the built environment; and manufacturing), the Two-Eyed Seeing Network will work to bridge the gaps between the needs of industry and the potential Indigenous workforce of tomorrow. The network includes participation from Indigenous communities, Industry leaders, workforce and social development organizations, and education and training providers all working together to establish a viable pathway to future work for Indigenous youth that meets the needs of, and is relevant to, both Industry and Indigenous communities. Network partners will work to determine the critical elements to bridge gaps, remove barriers, and engage communities in workforce development, to enable successful labour force participation for Indigenous youth.

Start-end date: April 2021 - May 2023
Sponsor: Construction Foundation of BC

Connecting the Dots

This project aims to develop, implement, and evaluate an integrated, accessible, and adaptive training and support system, serving as an online one-stop shop of educational tools, materials, and community resources for apprentices in the construction trades. The goal is to empower apprentices to take a proactive role in addressing multiple levels of challenges during apprenticeship training. As part of the project, SRDC is designing and implementing a cohesive evaluation framework and data collection tools that not only track the progress of participating apprentices but also collect input and feedback from trades instructors, employers, unions, and other stakeholders to inform current and future products, tools, and services. The project contributes to facilitate the entry, retention, and advancement of underrepresented groups in the trades through an innovative, self-directed approach to online learning and interaction. It is designed to provide equal opportunity and access for groups that are traditionally underrepresented in the trades, such as women, newcomers, visible minorities, Indigenous Peoples, youth, and low-skilled and displaced workers. Findings, best practices, and lessons learned from this project will be shared to support larger-scale expansion of this technology-driven approach to skills development within and beyond the construction sector.

Start-end date: March 2021 - February 2026
Sponsor: SkillPlan

Skills for Success Framework: Validation in the Manufacturing Sector

As part of validating OLES’ new Skills for Success Framework, SRDC and Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium are working collaboratively to engage employers in the Manufacturing sector to achieve two primary objectives: i) Validate the Framework: Are the new skills definitions included in the Skills for Success framework aligned with broad employer needs and business outcomes? ii) Alignment with Job Tasks: How do the subcomponents of each defined skill align with the job performance requirements of workers in the sector? Findings from the validation exercise will support and inform training and curriculum development tailored to sector needs, as well as the development of assessment tools to measure pre-training skill gaps and post-training gains.

Start-end date: March 2021 - June 2021
Sponsor: Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium

Youth Program Navigator Pilot

SRDC is conducting ethnographic studies on targeted youth facing barriers using a variety of qualitative research methods (observations, interviews, conversations) to learn how ESDC Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) funded programs may better connect to hardest-to-reach youth. While YESS is intended to help young people, particularly those facing barriers to employment, get the information and gain the skills, work experience, and abilities they need to make a successful transition into the labour market, this project is concerned with optimal outreach to youth who face additional barriers to accessing services. Policy makers recognize the need to identify potential touchpoints in youths’ daily lives for YESS outreach. The project draws on SRDC’s prior experience working with vulnerable youth and knowledge of the youth ecosystem and understanding of vulnerable communities. Deliverables include reporting on results of the ethnographic study and a collaborative workshop to apply study results and develop program delivery recommendations.

Start-end date: February 2021 - June 2021
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

Overcoming barriers to skills development and employment for equity-seeking groups: Research synthesis

Jobs are changing and so are the skills Canadians need to be successful in a modern economy. Acquisition of foundational and socio-emotional skills is critical for those who are currently under-employed and underrepresented in the workforce. However, equity-seeking groups – such as women, youth, Indigenous persons, newcomers, members of racialized groups, persons with disabilities, and people who identify as LGBTQ2S+ – often face individual, organizational, and systemic barriers that prevent them from acquiring these skills and accessing good jobs. In addition, they may lack access to the experiences and supports that foster these skills, such as coaching from mentors and role models, professional networks, and positive early learning experiences; they may also experience differences between their values or customs and those desired by employers in the Canadian workplace. As the federal department mandated to promote a highly skilled and mobile labour force and an efficient and inclusive labour market, Employment and Social Development Canada aims to improve its capacity to better measure, monitor, and address gender disparity and promote access of underrepresented groups across its skills and training programs. SRDC has been engaged to consolidate and analyze available information on the skill gaps, learning needs, and systemic barriers faced by equity-seeking groups in accessing and benefiting from the skills training and employment supports offered by governments and organizations across the country. SRDC will analyze this information using a social-ecological and intersectional approach that recognizes the multiple personal and environmental factors that can influence outcomes in employment and training, and the ways an individual’s social identities can intersect and create exclusion and marginalization. The resulting research synthesis is expected to broaden ESDC’s understanding of the challenges to skills acquisition faced by underrepresented groups, and to inform future programming and research.

Start-end date: January 2021 - March 2021
Sponsor: Employment and Social Development Canada

Status Report on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion within the Faculty of the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

The Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) is currently developing its future action plan on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within the institution. In order to identify courses of action and set priorities for this plan, SRDC has been mandated to establish the current state of affairs in terms of faculty representativeness in order to draw recommendations to promote EDI that will be relevant for the EDI Institutional Committee and other stakeholders at UQTR. This inventory includes the quantitative measurement of vertical and horizontal representation and organizational structure (groups recognized as under-represented – Indigenous persons, visible minorities, people from the LGBTQ2S+ community, people with disabilities, women), the measurement of barriers related to the retention and career progression of faculty members (as indicated in the NSERC Dimensions Charter) and the collection of suggestions and recommendations from faculty members related to EDI.

Start-end date: December 2020 - July 2021
Sponsor: Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

Employment Accessibility Standards for Recruitment and Retention of People with Disabilities

This project is designed to advance research on accessibility standards to inform Accessibility Standards Canada (ASC) as it works with stakeholders and persons with disabilities to create new accessibility regulations that will apply to sectors within its federal jurisdiction. SRDC’s project is focused on employment standards, which was the area most frequently cited in the consultations informing the development of the recently adopted Accessibility Canada Act as the most important for improving accessibility. The goal of the project is to provide information to be used in the development of workplace employment standards for people with disabilities, specifically focused on recruitment and retention practices, which will inform the identification, selection and implementation of compliance and enforcement measures under ASC’s new accessibility regulatory framework. The project involves partnerships with national disability-serving organizations, including Neil Squire Society, Magnet & The Discover Ability Network, and the Autism-Intellectual Disability National Resource and Exchange (AIDE), to engage 8 to 10 federally-regulated employers across Canada in the project’s research activities.

Start-end date: October 2020 - March 2023
Sponsor: Accessibility Standards Canada

Skills Compass

Young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) are at risk of becoming socially excluded, with low income and lacking the skills to improve their economic situation. Indigenous youth, and youth who are newcomers to Canada, may face additional barriers to becoming engaged in employment or education. Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) is leading a pilot project to address potential barriers faced by Indigenous and newcomer NEET youth through a pre-employment training program, wraparound supports, and employment placements. SRDC as the evaluation partner is responsible for developing the evaluation framework and data collection instruments, measuring outputs and outcomes, integrative data analysis, reporting findings, and participating in knowledge mobilization.

Start-end date: October 2020 - March 2023
Sponsor: Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan)

CreateAction: Inclusive Social Innovation

CreateAction: Inclusive Social Innovation — This project is evaluating the role that six-month work experience opportunities in the social innovation, social finance, and social enterprise sectors can play in supporting youth who are either not in employment, education, or training (NEET). The project is being led by the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet) in partnership with SRDC and the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC). The project aims to recruit
100 Indigenous youth, new immigrants, young people living in poverty, those who identify as LGBTQ2S+, young people with disabilities, racialized youth, youth in rural/remote communities, and official language minority youth. SRDC is supporting the project design, coordinating tailored supports to participants, and leading the project’s evaluation activities. The evaluation is examining how the placement opportunities facilitate the transition of young people to secure employment in the labour market through the development of skills, workplace experience, professional networks, and tailored wraparound supports. It is also examining how hosting the youth placements will support the capacity and sustainability of innovative social purpose organizations across Canada to hire youth facing barriers from the communities they serve, connect to regional Social Innovation and Social Finance ecosystems, and leverage investments of the Investment Readiness Program and Social Finance Fund.

Start-end date: August 2020 - March 2023
Sponsor: Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet)

Building the evidence base about economic, health and social inequities faced by LGBTQ2S+ individuals in Canada

Research shows that, as a group, gender and sexual minorities – including people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and two-spirit (LGBTQ2S+) – are more likely to live in poverty, face more barriers to employment (including stigma and discrimination), and earn less at work, despite often having higher levels of educational attainment than the general population. These areas of research are still emerging, and major knowledge gaps remain. For example, most research does not examine differences within the diverse LGBTQ2S+ community and does not link people’s experiences in the labour market with health and social outcomes. In addition, most research is from the US and Europe as Canada has very few indicators of gender and sexual minority status in its existing large survey datasets. This makes it difficult to understand the scale and scope of the problem and determine how best to address it through research, policy, programs, or practices (e.g., in the workplace). In partnership with Dr. Sean Waite at the University of Western Ontario, Pride at Work Canada, and the Labour Market Information Council, SRDC will lead this project, which aims to identify key determinants of economic outcomes for gender and sexual minorities in Canada. This work will inform effective program and policy interventions to reduce the socio-economic inequities that LGBTQ2S+ people experience.

Read the Phase 1 Report.

Read the Phase 2 Report.

Read the Phase 3 Report.

Start-end date: May 2020 - July 2022
Sponsor: Women and Gender Equality Canada

Implementing a Virtual Recruitment and Assessment Centre for the Unionized Construction Industry

This project will develop a recruitment strategy integrating sectoral needs analysis, behavioural insights, and social marketing to reach underrepresented groups and increase their awareness, knowledge, and connection to the building trades. A social media based messaging strategy informed by how each of the targeted groups perceives benefits and barriers to entering the trades will connect prospective candidates to an innovative online assessment and matching platform which will help users determine their suitability, connect directly to a Building Trades union, and transition into the apprenticeship system with essential skills tutoring. Unions will help to inform the recruitment strategy and refine the assessment and matching process to ensure candidates have the skills and mentor/support networks to succeed. Phase II of the project will focus on optimization of user pathways and enhanced functionality and content of learning resources. As well, this phase will focus on customizing components to be more responsive to local conditions, recruitment challenges, and union-specific skills needs. Evidence on the effectiveness of these enhancements will be generated through a mixed methods approach, which will include both implementation research and an outcomes study to evaluate the success of the initiative.

Start-end date: April 2020 - September 2023
Sponsor: Future Skills Centre

Evaluation of the BC Centre for Women in the Trades

The BC Centre for Women in the Trades is created to address workforce retention priorities for tradeswomen, supporting their career advancement and retention in the building trades. It was launched in 2018 with funding for two years. SRDC will be conducting the evaluation. The goal of the evaluation is to measure the effects of the program activities and, specifically, to assess the three program components: outreach and mentorship for tradeswomen, shifting the culture through leadership development and training, and building workforce diversity through organizational capacity building. The BC Federation of Labour is implementing the Centre in partnership with the BC Building Trades, the BC Tradeswomen Society, Construction Labour Relations, and the BC LNG Alliance.

Start-end date: June 2018 - April 2020
Sponsor: B.C. Federation of Labour