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Trevor Wilhelm/The Windsor Star
An aging and undereducated workforce combined with a shortage of new recruits is hampering Essex County’s economic growth, even as the region sits at the dawn of massive new investment and opportunity, according to a new report.
Workforce WindsorEssex released the 2022-2023 Local Labour Market Plan on Wednesday, outlining local challenges and opportunities.
“Windsor has really systemic issues around educational attainment because years ago when our parents went to school, they could leave high school, walk right across to Ford or Chrysler, get a job immediately and presumably work for the rest of their lives,” said CEO Justin Falconer. “They were getting good pay. A lot of them didn’t feel the need to go to university or college. So fast forward years later, we have people living longer, older workers. They all have sort of lower educational attainment.”
Workforce WindsorEssex launched the report Wednesday with an in-person event and community discussion. Partly based on surveys and consultations with representatives from various sectors, the plan identifies challenges employers face with sustainability, recruitment, retention, work-based learning, and growth.
The project, funded in part by the federal and provincial governments, also offers analysis of labour market statistics and recommendations on how to grow the region’s workforce.
“Essentially, what we found is that there is still a demand for manufacturing work, but we have a severe shortage in skilled trades apprenticeships,” said Safa Youness, who authored the report. “So promoting apprenticeships in the skilled trades is highly recommended. We have some exciting projects coming, so the electric vehicle battery plant will be bringing in a range of jobs, from manufacturing jobs to higher level senior engineering jobs.”
Falconer said Workforce WindsorEssex, Invest WindsorEssex, WEtech Alliance, University of Windsor, and St. Clair College are working on a new website called EV Careers. The website, which is not yet public, is aimed at helping people understand what opportunities are available in the EV sector and how do upgrade skills or transition into these jobs.
Well before construction of the $5 billion NextStar electric vehicle battery plant is even finished, there is already a demand for skilled labour.
Windsor has been seeing near record job postings with “well over 6,000 postings every months” for the last seven months, said Falconer.
One reason for that is a retiring workforce leaving organizations scrambling to find replacements. Falconer said that while increasing numbers of younger people are getting a post-secondary education, there is still a “big divide.”
He said 10 per cent more people in Windsor have a high school diploma as their highest credential compared to the Ontario average, and about 10 per cent fewer have a university degree.
“So we have that to make up as our kids graduate and as our population ages and changes,” he said.
To do that, Youness said it’s necessary to have programs “that are reflective of the demand for industry in the region.”
“We have more people retiring and leaving important sectors like the skilled trades and healthcare than those who are being trained currently to join them,” she said. “Addressing that need is very important right now.”
Collaboration is key to most of the study’s findings. The summary suggests that businesses collaborate with local educational institutions to offer hard skill development, soft skill development, on-site training, and online training. This will help retain employees, promote career growth, and recruit future employees, according to the report.
The report also advocates for collaboration between employers and service organizations to help put newcomers into in-demand sectors and careers by developing occupation-specific training.
Youness said such efforts would not only help break down language barriers, but fight cultural biases.
“We do have a large newcomer population that is coming with skills from their home country,” she said. “Removing restrictions and access to barriers in terms of language-specific occupation training would be a huge bonus to our local economy, taking advantage of the talent that’s already here.”
Another recommendation calls for the support of education initiatives to create career pathways by integrating “experiential learning” into teaching and program requirements.
This will ensure post-secondary students receive real workplace experience while still in school, providing them “meaningful engagement with their field of study and possible careers,” according to the report.
The study also states it is important to support late career changes through programs like Better Jobs Ontario and Service Canada’s EI program, which provide long-time employees with financial support while taking full-time training.
“Great opportunities ahead,” said Falconer. “We’ve got to see what we can do to help people make the transition to those careers, while also making sure that all the other jobs in the economy remained filled, and those employers are still thriving and doing well with their workforce.”
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