Skills development solutions need to be informed and validated by rigorous evaluation. To find out what works and why, Blueprint has been leading evidence generation efforts on several skills development projects funded by the Future Skills Centre.
As one of the founding consortium partners of the Future Skills Centre (FSC), Blueprint collaborates with policymakers and practitioners to generate rigorous evidence to understand how they can learn, improve, and maximize their impact. Blueprint worked with promising projects funded by FSC in its first full year of operations to gather insights on their implementation, track outcomes and understand their capacity to scale. The reports below summarize the findings from each of these Blueprint-led evaluations.
Assessing a platform to help newcomers enter the Canadian job market
As Canada welcomes more newcomers, effective skills development and employment supports are needed to help individuals enter in-demand jobs, fast. This evaluation report provides key findings and implications from Facilitating Access to Skilled Talent, a promising career preparation platform for newcomers funded through Canada’s Future Skills Centre. Blueprint worked with FAST on a 2019 – 2021 evaluation of the platform.
English version
French version
Assessing a pilot program to re-skill displaced oil and gas workers
As the energy industry continues to transform, sector workers need skills development supports to adapt and transition into new careers. This evaluation report provides key findings and implications from the Energy to Digital Growth Education and Upskilling Project, a pilot ICT training program for displaced oil and gas workers in Calgary funded through Canada’s Future Skills Centre.
English version
French version
Assessing a program to increase the digital competencies of recent non-STEM grads
ADaPT is a skills development and work placement program to increase the digital competencies and professional skills of recent graduates with non-STEM backgrounds, with a particular focus on equity-seeking groups, underrepresented in digital roles. Blueprint worked with the Diversity Institute and TECHNATION to conduct an evaluation of ADaPT from September 2020 to October 2021. This report summarizes our evaluation.
Career Moves was a pilot project delivered by NorQuest College from January 2020 to June 2021, to support mid-career workers most impacted by the economic downturn in Alberta, helping them find new jobs, pursue further education through certification or find work placements in new careers. Blueprint worked with NorQuest College to collect data that helped us understand who the pilot reached, and how the participants fared. This brief summarizes our findings.
From May 2020 to October 2021, CLIMB was a project delivered by Northern Lights College to support mid-career workers who might benefit from more training or education, or are considering a transition but feeling reluctant to make a change. Blueprint collected data that helped us understand who participated in the pilot and if they succeeded in their goals. This brief summarizes our findings.
The Indigenous ICT Development Centre (I-ICT), led by FireSpirit and IDFusion, designed and delivered an ICT training program for un-and underemployed Indigenous people at two sites in Manitoba: Winnipeg and The Pas from August 2019 to January 2021. Blueprint worked with FireSpirit and IDFusion on a continuous learning approach that generated practical, timely and actionable evidence throughout the course of the project. This report shares our key insights and tips.
The Supporting Mid-Career Workers in Retail and Meat Processing Project was a training program developed and delivered by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), one of Canada’s largest private-sector unions. The accessible online courses offered digital skills and pre-apprenticeship knowledge training to mid-career union members in the retail and meat processing industries who are at a particularly high risk of being replaced by automation. Blueprint worked with UFCW to evaluate the program from 2019 to 2021. This report summarizes the findings from this evaluation to understand the outcomes achieved by participants and the experiences of participants and program staff in interacting with the program.
The Skilled Jobs & Career Pathways for Mid-Career Workers through Work-Based Learning Project was a training program developed and delivered by the Work Based Learning Consortium (WBLC) and its partners in response to a shortage of workers with the right skills for entry- to mid-level jobs in the advanced manufacturing industry in Ontario. This project aimed to bridge those skills gaps by helping mid-career workers with little relevant work experience get hired in mold maintenance jobs and acquire industry-valued skills and certifications on the job, and by upskilling current workers in mold maintenance. Blueprint worked with WBLC to evaluate the program from 2019 to 2021. This report summarizes findings from that evaluation, with the objective of understanding participant outcomes and the experiences of participants, program partners and employers.
The FUSION pilot was a project delivered by Future Skills Innovation Network (FUSION) to support university graduates who struggled with finding a job and transferring academic skills to the workplace. FUSION, as a collaborative group of Canadian universities, aimed to use its network model to foster collaboration around skills development, speed the diffusion of successful innovations, and produce a more streamlined and optimized workforce development system. Blueprint worked with FUSION to collect data that helped us understand the pilot’s reach and the outcomes achieved by participants. This report summarizes the findings from the evaluation of the FUSION pilot, with the objective of understanding program reach, participants’ program satisfaction and completion, and their early program outcomes.