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The Canadian Council for Aviation & Aerospace (CCAA) has begun to build the first Labour Market Information (LMI) system dedicated solely to the aviation and aerospace manufacturing workforce. Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) is funding CCAA for a three-year project to create an LMI system that will consolidate and standardize current, accurate LMI for all sub-sectors of the aviation and aerospace manufacturing industry.
Labour Market Information helps align skills development to industry needs. Skilled labour is paramount to successful performance in aviation and aerospace manufacturing and sustained investment in these industries.
Serious global competition for more and better-trained workers has prompted the federal government and Canadian aviation and aerospace companies to request nationally coherent LMI to ensure that industry has enough workers with the right skills to allow for projected growth. Some LMI is available for aerospace, but there is none for other key sub-sectors of the industry (e.g. airports, business aviation, helicopter operators etc.), each of which is critical to the Canadian economy. Credible intelligence within the industry can contribute to efficiently overcoming the greatest obstacles to developing and implementing solutions that combat skills shortages, such as recruitment, up-skilling, and focused training.
In late October and November, CCAA will be holding focus groups across Canada for aviation and aerospace workforce experts, industry associations, human resources personnel, colleges and training representatives to seek their input on what their organizations need with respect to Labour Market Information. Business use cases have been developed for the project and its major participants and components.
Participation from aviation and aerospace organizations across Canada is key to a strong and relevant system, and to that end, CCAA has begun contacting a number of associations to confirm their participation. This work will be complete when the final decision is made regarding which 10 key aviation occupations will be chosen for the first year’s study. Strong consideration is being given to doing a pilot salary survey (by popular demand) as part of this initial study.
The coherent LMI data and analysis engendered by the CCAA LMI system will be as useful for the East Coast as it is for the West and the North. In addition to providing regional viewpoints, information is to be analyzed from a number of perspectives: by region, by occupation, by level of educational requirement, by gender, by professional category, etc. The data will be widely available and will have a huge impact on awareness, recruitment, outreach, hiring, planning, training, career choice, workforce management, investment and management.
For more information or to arrange participation in industry focus groups, please contact Theresa Davis-Woodhouse at tdaviswoodhouse@avaerocouncil.ca or 613-727-8272, ext. 247.
