PO Podcast 142 - A Skills-Based Approach to Career Planning

Policy Options Podcast

The past few years have been extremely disruptive for Canada’s labour market. In a period of considerable economic change, we have also been facing a pandemic that has shaken the labour market to its core. Some sectors of the economy were shedding jobs and others were frantically searching for workers. It has become clear that workers’ ability to take advantage of emerging job opportunities will determine their resilience over the immediate and longer terms. To enable individuals to make the best career and training choices and adapt to these changes we need more effective information tools, so that those who lose their jobs or are underemployed and want to change jobs can quickly identify appropriate employment opportunities. Matthias Oschinski (founder and CEO of Belongnomics and faculty member at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy) and Thanh Nguyen (undergraduate student in computer science and engineering at MIT) developed two algorithms that, based on an individual’s skillset, suggest potential jobs and provide a pathway to help make those job transitions possible. They are the authors of this recent IRPP study, and today Matthias joins the podcast.