Upskilling for Canada’s Climate Transition

Providing Rapid and Just Education and Training

What will it take to integrate climate action know-how into the Canada’s workforce, where every sector, discipline, organization, and job has relevant accountabilities for addressing the challenges of climate change and “everything change”? What is the role of post-secondary institutions, through their continuing education units, to be part of climate action know-how development?

CanAdapt is in the business of developing climate action know-how. We are focused on capacity building for climate adaptation strategies, tactics, and authentic measrement – to address the cascading and compounding effects of climate change on built and natural infrastructure, for food and water security, for public health, for sustainable ecosystems, and for social development agendas that support vulnerable populations.

CanAdapt is providing upskilling options for working professionals, through professional development courses and by supporting practitioner networks. We are adopting rapid learning approaches and offering climate action micro-credentials that provide accessible, credentialled upskilling. And we are asking many questions of Canadian leaders in industry, NGOs and post-secondary education on how to do this well, through an applied research project, Upskilling for Canada’s Climate Transition.

Check out preliminary research and reflections on the question, Is Continuing Education Ready to Upskill the Workforce to Take Climate Action?

We need Canadian post-secondary institutions, working through industry and community collaborations and partnerships, to equip the Canadian workforce with the skills and competencies necessary to weave climate action knowhow into every job in the country.

Upskilling for Canada’s Climate Transition project was an initiative led by the Academy for Sustainable Innovation in partnership with the Resilience by Design Lab, a partner in CanAdapt. This applied research was funded by Future Skills Center – Centre des Competences futures. We can also now link to the report which is located at: https://sustainableinnovation.academy/upskilling/