Manufacturing Automation: We need to start giving soft skills more credit
by Manufacturing Automation
National skills and experience strategy, AI and machine learning may help to quantify 'soft skills'
Photo: kali9/Getty Images
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians are retiring or are being laid off in greater numbers and taking their much-needed skills and experience out of the workforce. At the same time, many others are facing career disruptions and have had to quickly retool just to survive.
As we work towards a long-term economic recovery, policy makers and postsecondary institutions need to ensure younger learners and mid-career professionals are acquiring the right mix of skills for the future. Often forgotten in the discussion around skills development are the critical ‘soft skills’ that are essential to every workplace and much sought-after by employers.
It’s time for a national skills and experience strategy that includes a framework to credit soft skills in order to better address skills gaps across the country and prepare students for jobs of the future.
Read more on Manufacturing Automation, one of Canadian Manufacturing‘s sister publications.
