RE: ED15.1

Toronto Sector Skills Academy Economic Development Committee Meeting

OCTOBER 24, 2016

Sandy Houston – President & CEO, Metcalf Foundation

Mission:

To enhance the effectiveness of people and organizations working together to help Canadians imagine and build a just, healthy, and creative society.

We encourage success by:

• Supporting dynamic leadership• Nurturing new ideas and practices• Fostering integrated thinking

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Opportunities for the Toronto Region• Working As One: A Workforce Development Strategy For Toronto

• Objective to Connect Employers and Qualified Candidates

• Developing Better Employer Gateways

• Customizing services

• TO Prosperity: Toronto Poverty Reduction Strategy

• Create Pathways to Prosperity in Quality Jobs and Livable Incomes

• Systemic Change

• Social Procurement Program• Purpose and Policy Statement

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Sector strategies focus on:1. Raising the Floor:

improving the qualityof low-wage jobs

2. Building Ladders:helping workersmove into better jobsby removing barriersand skills gaps.

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Sector Definition(s)

• Targets a specific industry or set of occupations — businesscompetitiveness and workforce needs intersect

• Intervenes through a credible organization or set of organizations —Workforce Intermediary

• Not a model but “a strategy, a set of functions, and a guiding vision toachieve defined results”

• Improves ability of workers to get better jobs

• Creates systemic change*Adapted from Connecting People to Work: Maureen Conway

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Toronto Sector Skills Academy1. Improve the quantity, quality, and sustainability of sector

efforts on the ground

2. Develop the competencies and leadership of senior managers to use sectoral approaches and strengthen the organizational capacity of their institutions to achieve lasting sectoralchange

3. Create and support a learning community of workforce leaders that increases professional networks and opportunities for collaboration

4. Champion sector strategies as a framework for workforce development and poverty reduction

GOALS

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Building the Field of SectoralWorkforce Development

• Strategic and collaborative investments by private philanthropy • Pulling together players in the system who can contribute to catalytic funding

• Pursuing change in public policy and funding• Creating campaigns and coalitions to advocate sectoral workforce development

• Developing practice from the ground up• Iterative process of testing new approaches and leveraging existing practices

• Building the evidence base • Documenting existing practices to understand baselines and challenges

• Seeding institutions and growing capacity• Developing policy, leadership, and communities of practice

LESSONS FROM

THE U.S.

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Questions?

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SYSTEMS SAMPLE OBJECTIVES

Industry Practices Influence hiring practices to include low income constituency

Improve working conditions

Create (access to) advancement opportunities

Education & Training Infrastructure

Improve access to education (credit &/or industry-recognized credentials)Create new apprenticeship programs

Preserve & revitalize industry-specific programs

Public Policy Change regulations for target industry to encourage better or more accessible opportunitiesIncrease/alter public funding streams that support and direct education/training

Source: M. Conway, A. Blair & A. Gerber Systems Change: A Survey of Program Activities, www. aspenwsi.org 10

Systems Change WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?