The last three years have seen a perfect storm of circumstances combine to create a major shortage of skilled labour in the construction industry.
On the demand side, the number of new housing builds and major project investment experienced record highs in 2019 and are expected to continue their upward trend for another decade.
On the supply side, up to 260,000 veteran workers will retire in the next decade, more people moved into other job sectors during the pandemic and new entrants into the labour market are less interested in pursuing opportunities in skilled trades. Overall, 30% of Canadian businesses are reporting labour shortages.
The construction industry is looking at various ways to narrow the gap between their demand for workers and the lack of workforce supply. Short-term solutions include moving available workers from areas of low demand to areas of the country where construction is booming such as British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec. Wage increases, bonuses and improved benefits are also being offered, but these cause building costs to increase and affect employers’ bottom line.
The key factor with skilled labour is that you can’t just hire any warm body to fill a role. These positions require specific training and a variety of knowledge-based and safety certifications to ensure workers can provide quality work and mitigate the risks inherent to these positions.
Training institutions and construction industry associations are playing their part to meet the demand by enticing underrepresented groups such as women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+, Indigenous groups and newcomers through targeted recruitment campaigns.
The challenge faced by training institutions in managing the push for skilled labour is ensuring they meet the needs of both the employers and employees, while building their reputation by providing valuable training certifications and creating trusted relationships with the companies and individuals they serve.
Like all industries currently facing the tide of digital transformation, training institutions and industry associations that issue workforce credentials are looking at ways to improve how they deliver their products and services to keep up with the new demands of the current workforce landscape.
In the construction industry specifically, employers need to verify if current and potential employees have the credentials, skills and experience needed to perform the job at hand. Likewise, tradespeople arriving at a worksite need to prove they have the necessary skills and certifications to complete the work safely. All this needs to happen in an efficient, secure and timely fashion.
Credivera’s innovative verifiable credential platform enables training issuers to instantly provide valued digital certificates and credentials to employers and employees, securely and in real-time. By directly connecting to LMS and HRIS/HRMS systems, Credivera reduces the administrative time required for credential management and distribution, while ensuring they are fraud-proof – providing peace of mind to companies and employees alike.
The benefits of using Credivera’s digital credentialing solutions go far beyond the critical aspects of providing secure, accurate and timely credentials. Since individuals carry their credentials in a digital wallet, they can easily share and showcase their achievements on social media, which also builds professional credibility of the issuer in the eyes of colleagues. The flexibility that verified digital credentials provide means issuers can work in partnership with employers to create comprehensive skills development programs, which in turn helps companies recruit and retain talent – a full-circle win-win!
Our digital credential verification solution helps issuers elevate their educational offerings. To find out more about offering training credentials through the Credivera Network, book a product demo here.
.png)
.png)