Charlottetown Chamber-Small Business Week: Panel & Discussion: The Future of Workforce & What Business Can Do To Respond

Panelists: Dr. Sandy MacDonald, President, Holland College Leah Nord, Director, Skills & Immigration, Canadian Chamber of Commerce Detry Carragher, Award-Winning Management Consultant (HR) & Corporate Trainor, CARVO GROUP Moderator: Dawn Binns, President, Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce ?Join us for a panel discussion as voices from the Chamber network, private sector and post-secondary share their perspectives on what they are seeing as current and future opportunities and challenges in our workforce. With close to 40% of Canadian small and medium-sized businesses having difficulty hiring new employees (BDC – Labour Shortages Here to Stay, September 2018) and labour shortages identified as most serious in Atlantic Canada, British Columbia and Ontario, the challenges with growing our workforce are paramount with policy makers and private sector. In PEI, a growing vacancy rate is creating challenges for small and medium businesses with a direct link between a shortage of workers and slower growth in company sales. This paired with ever changing technology, emerging trends and unknown future skills requirement (85% of the jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t been invented yet – Institute for the Future), is causing us to pause and question what the future of PEI and Canada’s workforce will be and what we can do to address these new challenges.