In 2021, YES Employment and Entrepreneurship engaged Creative Futures to provide Future of Work training as part of a pilot providing professional development training for English-speaking career practitioners in Quebec.

Our Approach:

• Learning occurred over two full-day virtual sessions that incorporated interactive learning activities. We used gameplay, role play, prototyping exercises, small group discussions and a virtual whiteboard to provide a highly engaging virtual experience.

• We provided pre-reading materials in advance of each session to expand the learning experience. Participants were also asked to do a “homework” activity in preparation for session 2.

• The first session focused on building the capacity of participants to use futures thinking and strategic foresight tools to anticipate the future of Quebec’s labour market.

• The second session incorporated the latest research on skills development and the future of work.

• To support the continued use of the program tools, we created a “personal foresight” tool for participants to test and use with their future clients.

Learning Outcomes:

Over 30 career practitioners attended the two sessions, learning how to:

• Identify an emerging labour market trend and its possible implications;

• Monitor and evaluate emerging trends;

• Understand a range of possible future jobs; and

• Understand how to identify growing and declining industries in Quebec.

In addition, participants learned about:

• Eight megatrends impacting the future of work in Canada;

• Five foundational skills associated with jobs projected to grow in the future;

• Emerging methods for supporting workers in disruptive jobs to transition to growing fields; and

• The fundamentals of personal foresight and how to support their clients to use foresight methods.

Results:

Overall, participants found the program incredibly valuable, with over 90% reporting it was a good use of time, and 89% said that they would “absolutely” recommend it to a colleague.