FSC Community of Practice: Resources and Offerings

Research Impact Canada is working collaboratively with the Future Skills Centre to actively support a pan-Canadian Community of Practice centered around the skills and workforce development ecosystem. This initiative aims to unite professionals from across the country, fostering the adoption of impactful workplace and professional development practices within the skills development and training sector.

Conversations 2 Community is our monthly newsletter to stay up to date on upcoming FSC Community of Practice events, innovative programs, news and resources to support your organization. We will cover topics a broad range of topics impacting the skills training and workforce development practitioners and the future of work. Sign Up and Connect with Us!

Members of our Community of Practice have the opportunity to share their experiences in the sector in our monthly editions of ‘In Conversation With…‘ Each edition highlights successful programs or initiatives spearheaded by organizations within the Canadian skills and workforce development sector. ‘In Conversation With…’ serves as an opportunity to gain insights from each other and connect with fellow practitioners across Canada. Access the Community of Practice’s ‘In Conversation With…’ editions here.

Check out how our Community of Practice is working to Connect People to People, Connect People to Knowledge, and Connect People to Learning.

Connecting People to People

Meet people across the country who are preparing Canadians for the future of work, and participate in peer learning and exchange.

 

Conversations to Connections (C2C) was an initiative designed to directly engage with stakeholders across the Canadian skills and workforce development sector. The experiences and voices of nearly 300 professionals representing organizations in every province and territory of the country have been compiled into a several resources including actionable recommendations that can serve to drive practical changes across the sector:

PLGs provide an opportunity for you to connect with and learn from similar people and organisations across diverse sectors and industries. These sessions will focus on themes that have emerged across our network as common interests and challenges.

We’ve run a number of peer Learning Groups to date. Resources from these groups can be found below.

PLG Resources:

Stay tuned for more information about our Cohorts of Engagement Initiative.

Connecting People to Knowledge

Access curated products, case studies, and tools with actionable insights and innovative practices

 

Insight Bytes are short, engaging pieces of online content that summarize key findings from the Future Skills Centre reports. The goal is to give skills and employment service practitioners access to emerging data in the workforce development sector and promote evidence-based decision making and use of data in organizational practices. Some examples are linked below.

Beyond Blue and White Collar: A Skills-Based Approach to Canadian Job Groupings

Data Bytes are short, engaging pieces of online content that discuss new and interesting topics in the world of data. Created by the Regional Analytics Laboratory at Memorial University, the purpose of the Bytes is to encourage skills and employment service practitioners to think about data from different perspectives and to promote evidence-based decision making and use of data in organizational practices.

Some examples can be found below.

NAICS and NOC: What You Should Know

5 Common Data Caveats

What is metadata and why is it important?

From Start to Finish: A Walk-through of the Data Journey

Data Releases are Fast and Furious

Water Cooler Chats are weekly posts, highlighting current or topical issues and conversations which will promote and connect people to knowledge by linking to aligned FSC research or projects

Stay tuned for more information about our Resource Hub!

Connecting People to Learning

Learn from experts, access learning supports, and participate in professional development opportunities on relevant and timely topics

 

As part of our ‘People to Learning’ offerings, Research Impact Canada has hosted a number of workshops. View them below:

Mobilizing your Knowledge: Turning Insight into Impact

Collaborating for Success: Strategies for building strong workforce development partnerships

Storytelling with purpose for impact

On August 18, 2022, Future Skills Centre hosted a virtual panel event via Zoom, called Bridging the School-to-Work Transition to explore the experiences of students and young adults navigating the postpandemic workforce. Over 200 people attended the panel to hear how skills training and guidance services are supporting learners and how the skills ecosystem can advance to better serve youth through educational and training systems.

As part of the event, RIC piloted a 30-minute postpanel networking reception with three breakout rooms, each facilitated by a moderator and a panelist for Q&A, discussion, and networking. A recording of the event can be found below.

On October 6, 2022, we piloted the User Centric Design in the Skills Ecosystem Roundtable. The roundtable reflected on emerging learnings in user centric design with a small group of experts and Future Skills Centre projects. The discussion moved beyond buzz words of participatory design, co-creation, and inclusive design to generate tangible insights relevant to policymakers and practitioners.

The event touched on:
• best practices for removing barriers to participatory design for end-users
• how to amplify voices of the communities being served to ensure agency and ownership
• different pathways to holistically including users’ voices when scaling for impact, including scaling in ‘depth’ to prioritize building deep, meaningful relationships with users.