The IPL newsletter: Volume 10, Issue 204

INTRODUCTION

This newsletter is published by The Innovation Policy Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, and sponsored by the Ministry of Research and Innovation. The views and ideas expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Ontario Government.

21st Century Cities in Canada: The Geography of Innovation

David Wolfe, Conference Board of Canada
This report summarizes the key insights and findings of a multi-year national study on urban industrial clusters, led by David Wolfe, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. Professor Wolfe’s monograph delineates the innovation dynamic, based on in-depth analysis of the experiences of 16 Canadian cities. 21st Century Cities in Canada explores the ways in which the economic shock of the past year has dramatized the changing nature of Canada’s economy, and it looks at the challenges that lie ahead. The monograph also sheds new light on the role of cities as the dominant sites of economic activity—the places where leading-edge innovation generates new ideas, new products, and new industries.

Designing Local Skills Strategies

OECD
Higher-level skills are increasingly demanded by the knowledge-based economy. But with rising mobility and demographic change, it is no longer so simple to invest in a skilled workforce for the future. Actions are needed on a variety of fronts, including attracting and retaining talent, better integrating disadvantaged groups into the labour force, and upgrading the skills of low-paid workers. Much of the responsibility for these actions falls squarely on the shoulders of local policy makers. Drawing from a wide array of case studies, this book analyzes best-practice local strategies for increasing workforce skills. And it also takes a close look at the opportunities and challenges presented by international migration. The in-depth case studies in this report range from Shanghai’s “Highland of Talent Strategy” to new “career ladders” which help immigrants escape low-skilled, low-paid employment in New York. National and local-level recommendations on local skills development are provided, for both OECD and non-OECD countries.

In order to prosper in today’s economy, local communities increasingly need to ensure that they adequately invest in education and skills. Higher level skills, such as the ability to analyze and process complex information, be creative and communicate effectively, are all increasing in importance in the context of the knowledge based economy.

Establishing Priorities

Competing demands and concers preset a major challenge to local communities seeking to develop local skills strategies and invest in their future labour force. With limited resources, local policy makers need to establish priorities to ensure that concerted local action can have a real impact on the labour market. However, what should these priorities be? The attraction and integration of new talent? The retention of existing skilled workers? The education and traiing of future generations of young people in the needs of the local labour market? The integration of disadvantaged groups who are currently outside of the labour force? Or “upskilling” the curret labour force and working with employers to move towards more knowledge-intensive forms of production? While national policy will have a role to play much of the responsibility will fall on the shoulders of local and regional agencies.

Overall Conclusions: Five Strategic Emerging Issues

Access to relevant information and data: Local actors need to understand and correctly define the local “skills ecology” to develop the appropriate tools required for evidence-based skills strategies. The Shanghai case illustrates the value of collecting annual data on skills demand and skills supply to ensure that training is being well targeted. In other localities struggling with a lack of disaggregated data, partnerships with regional and national actors are essential in mapping local supply and demand, and understanding how it fits withn the wider economic fabric.

Balanced and long term strategies: The review of local practice shows that, when developing strategies to improve the skills base, localities should strike the right balance between attracting talent, integarting the disadvantaged, and upgrading the skills of the low-qualified. In many cases it is clear that only certain aspects of the local skills ecology are receiving adequate attention. There are many factors, including short termism and a lack of resources, which prevent communities from dealing with more intractable skills problems, such as a low-skilled workforce, or pockets of local people without basic skills. Developing a strong skills strategy may therefore require providing incentives for local actors to work together towards longer term obhectives and invest in sustainable productivity growth.

Better mapping skills provision: Education and training is often delivered in a piecemeal fashion at the local level, with few connections between courses, and a lack of reference to employer needs. Joining up disparate education and training systems locally is crucial to helping people to build on their learning over time whilst in and outside of employment. In New York, career ladders have proved a very good way of linking up education and training provision into a coherent system in certain sectors, so that people can see how a basic course in retail can ultimately lead to a management position in a local department store. Such schemes link basic skills training with higher-level training, while also offering better career advice for adults, an element which is lacking in many OECD countries.

Building strong relationships with employers: In order to produce real change in the local labour markets, skills strategies need to address problems of both skills supply and skills demand. This require close working between public sector actors and employers. While the private sector can be an invaluable partners in highlighting the more immediate skllls demands, governmental actors can play a crucial role in encouraging employers’ to think about longer-term skills needs, and improve the way that they use skills in the workplace. This would be crucial to improving the quality of employment locally and avoiding problems of low-skill equilibrium. Public sector actors should also have a primary responsibility for ensuring the inclusion of disadvantaged groups.

Look to the future and anticipate change: The success of local skills strategies depends on the ability of actors to foresee future growth and skills demands. Skills strategies need to be subject to regular review and adjustment as economies and industries evolve. In particular, localities need to develop “flexible specialization”, building on specific strengths and local comparative advantage but adapting these to new forms of market demand as they emerge.