How often do we hear about the mismatch between jobs and skills? Employers are desperate to find qualified workers, and qualified workers are desperate to find jobs that suit their skill set.

It was therefore an honour and delight to have announced federal funding of $720,000 to the Automotive Industries Association to help address this national labour supply mismatch.

Funded by the Government of Canada’s Sectoral Initiatives Program, the research stage of the project is well under way. Researchers are working to outline the state of the current labour market, as well as provide a gap analysis to identify the missing labour market data. The end result will be an online bilingual interactive tool that tracks significant labour information in the industry. The tool is expected to launch in the last half of 2018.

Across Canada, there are approximately 29,000 automotive aftermarket repair facilities.  Approximately 95% are owned and operated by entrepreneurs. In Ontario alone, 128,200 people are employed in the industry.

Centennial College is Canada’s foremost training facility for the $21 billion automotive after-market sector. This research, and continued partnership between Centennial College and the Automotive Industries Association, will ensure that the educational and training curriculums will produce a world-class, competitive workforce.

This is a good example of the government and industry working to ensure an important labour issue is addressed.