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With advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technology and jobs changing rapidly, the need for reskilling is now more crucial than ever. According to a new study from IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV), executives in Canada estimate that 41% of their workforce will need to reskill as a result of implementing AI and automation over the next three years.  The global skills gap is real and growing and has the potential to significantly impact the advancement of technology companies and hinder economic growth. So, how do we skill and upskill people? How do we better prepare Canadians for the future workforce?

To help bridge the skills gap, IBM is investing in the future of work with a holistic approach that fosters access to education and skilling while creating a more diverse pipeline of applicants. IBM offers a range of education, skills, and career readiness programs to students and job seekers at no cost – all grounded in skills and career tracks relevant to the era of AI.

One example of how IBM does it today is through IBM Skills Build, a free education focussed on underrepresented communities in technology, that helps adult learners, and high school and university students and faculty, develop valuable news skills and access career opportunities. IBM’s skills and education programs are delivered through partnerships like Youth Employment Services (YES) and many more that that bring learning to life and are helping drive progress in developing the ecosystem needed to advance a skills-first approach.

"While there have been advancements made in skills training and education in Canada, we are still seeing a large skills gap, especially in areas such as digital skills and a mismatch in the skills being trained and those required by employers. We need to continue to push for change at both the training service provider level and the employer level. Utilizing a skills-first approach in training - including the use of micro-credentials and experiential learning - benefits both the job seeker and the employer,” said Tim Lang, President & CEO, YES.

Since partnering with IBM in September 2020, around 300 YES learners have used IBM SkillsBuild, spending over 9,600 hours learning and completing 5,726 learning activities. In the past six months, YES has had 118 learners spend 3,200 hours on the platform completing 1,177 learning activities. Over the years, many YES learners have benefited from the program and found gainful employment like being Certified Solutions Architects, website builders, and more.

“Being from a non- technical background IBM SkillsBuild gave me the edge during this program. The platform is so comprehensive, and allowed me to dive deeper into specific topics, which is crucial for catching up with all the different subjects that we see throughout the program,” said one of the learners of YES to Tech Learn and Earn program (Y2TLE) who moved to Canada in 2021.

The Y2TLE learner graduated in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in international business in Brazil and began his career as a business development analyst, focusing on business and market intelligence. It is when he moved to Canada, he realized the strength contained in the IT industry and decided to shift his career in that direction. Last year, he completed a cloud computing course via IBM SkillsBuild and is now working as a Cloud Architect with a leading technology company.

Another learner from the YES Skills to Success (YS2S) program shared, “IBM SkillsBuild is a great learning platform to get started with beginner's topics. I was introduced to many topics that I didn't know about.” He further added, “Before discovering IBM SkillsBuild, I obtained a software engineer diploma. While I had a solid foundation in programming languages, I felt that my skills were not sufficient for building projects or showcasing practical applications. Unfortunately, my college didn't emphasize hands-on projects and real-world application of programming concepts.”

His passion for web development, but the lack of focus on it in his college curriculum, led him to IBM SkillsBuild. It offered him a range of topics and frameworks in web development where he dived deep to home his web development skills.

As per Lang, “IBM supports skills-first training method, and we at YES are proud to be partnered with them as we deliver critical skills-first programming to underrepresented young people as they seek a career in the ICT sector."

IBM remains committed to helping Canadians get new skills including AI and data analytics, they need to work alongside technology in ways that help their everyday lives.

For more information on YES courses, please visit https://www.yes.on.ca/ibm-skillsbuild/.

For more information on IBM SkillsBuild, please visit https://skillsbuild.org.