National Occupational Standards The Employability Factor Ben Akoh, PhD(c) Standards Development Director

Overview What is BTM? Rationale for BTM NOS Process Opportunities

What is BTM? An educational Solution that equips its graduates with the right business and technical skills to enter the workplace Developed in collaboration with Industry and PSI since 2009 A set of Learning Outcomes and Competency Standards

What are NOS? Statements of Standards of Performance individuals must achieve when carrying out workplace functions NOS are Standards that must be attained

Rationale for BTM NOS

BTM Responds to Canada’s Skills Gap 32% of Canada’s employers say their most pressing issue today is a shortage of “skilled” workers More than 70% say this shortage is adversely affecting their ability to compete in the global economy (TD Bank 2013) Young people avoid technology careers Women make up less than 30% of the ICT workforce Projected retirements threatens available pool talent

Without a plan to address this issue, Canadian employers will become less competitive and many high–paying, technology jobs will go elsewhere Demand for technology–related skills in Canada remains strong Over 800,000 Canadians are employed in tech–related jobs Almost half are not in the tech sector 3% unemployment rate But skill shortages persist in key sectors and geographies Continuing skills mismatch Young people avoid tech–related careers Teachers, guidance counselors and parents often lack resources

ESDC/GoC Expansion Grant $1.6million over 3 years (2014-17) Review and Expansion of BTM (Evergreening 1.0 -> 2.0) Develop Prioritized NOS Professionalize BTM Improve Branding and Awareness

Rationale for BTM NOS Key growth Contributor LMI’s are murky 4.9% of GDP - ICT Sector jobs 9.5% contribution from 2002 to 2010 Employs 563000 Canadians 34.1% Private Sector R&D funds in 2011 LMI’s are murky Occupational definitions too broad. Non-Granular Multi-sectoral ICTs skills less obvious Aim: To increase Canada’s competitiveness in the Global Economy

Process

Process Industry research – Capture existing practices Multi-sectoral stakeholder consultation Identify and Select a priority List of Occupations Develop, Test, and Refine Occupations Publish Develop Accreditation and Recognition Tools

Prioritized NOS 27 New Job Profiles In 5 BTM Specializations Focused on Entry-level BTM graduate positions

Job Profiles Good mix of knowledge and experiential competencies and skills Prior knowledge, experience and qualification Task (tools and technology) Required Competencies (Knowledge, skills) Personal Attributes (Abilities, work values/styles) Essential Skills (Reading, numeracy, oral communication) Thinking Skills (problem solving, decision making) Goes beyond mere cognitive skills

Strategy Mapping the BTM NOS to the NOC/Exploring Gaps Exploring Connections to Jobbank.gc.ca Developing Career Counseling opportunities with Career Handbook

BTM NOS vs. NOC Gaps Two level of gaps: New Occupations in BTM NOS Eg. Agile Transformation Coach, IT Governance and Compliance Manager (Finance) Existing/similar occupations with enhanced annotations Eg. Health Project Managers, Finance Security Analyst

Career Handbook Acts as a Counselling Component of the NOC (2011 Revision) Provides global ratings assigned to occupations to define skills, characteristics and indicators related to occupation Important for career exploration and informed career decision making Contains 923 occupational profiles

What are the Opportunities for your institutions?

1. Recognition

BTM Certification Progression Recognition among two constituencies Students (Competencies) -> Professionalization Institutions (Programs)

Certification/Recognition/Credentialing Steps Students Institutions Knowledge Area Body of Knowledge Demonstrate competencies in the 70 Learning areas Ensure programs produce 70 learning outcomes Competency Level Exhibit knowledge and competencies in the respective level of responsibility and Skill (7 Levels) Ensure students meet the requirements of the levels through a balanced combination of “knowledge” and “experience” Certification Levels Attain the requisite level of certification: Associate Professional Advanced Professional Deliver Programs corresponding to the appropriate levels of certification: Baccalaureate Continuing Education Masters

2. Program Design Development of appropriate programs that reflect your market’s needs Already designed and developed Labour Market Analysis through rigorous research methodology Allows opportunity to create innovative programming

3. Branding and Promotion

Branding and Brand Awareness “There’s a brand for that BTM” Awareness through: Webinars Promotion on ITAC Website Promotion on your school site (with requisite accreditation/recognition) Conferences

4. Ready to use BTM sample job profiles

5. Commit to the BTM Brand

Ben Akoh, Standards Development Director, bakoh@itac.ca Gina Van Dalen, Senior Project Manager, gvandalen@itac.ca http://itactalent.ca/BTM-Learning-Outcomes