Partners Meeting – A Decisive Meeting for the Renewal of Québec’s Labour Force
Québec, June 14, 2011. – At the end of the partners' meeting at the Centre des congrès, the Minister of Education, Recreation and Sports, Line Beauchamp, and the Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity, Julie Boulet, announced concrete measures to advance the matching of training and the needs of the job market. Today, 13 strategies were announced. Other initiatives may be added as work with the partners proceeds.
"In establishing these 13 stategies, we intend to inject more dynamism, coherence and flexibility in the training supply throughout Québec. We must rise to this formidable challenge, while at the same time preserving the quality of basic education, for this is what allows our young people, but also adults who are employed, to be versatile in the job market and to be active citizens," Line Beauchamp stated.
"To sum up, what we are proposing today will better prepare young people for the job market, allow workers to improve their competencies, and enable businesses to be more productive and therefore more competitive. Québec as a whole will emerge the winner," added Julie Boulet.
The 13 strategies are as follows:
- Better use of infomation technologies to promote distance education and better serve students outside the major centres
- Prioritization of vocational and technical training needs by the Commission des partenaires du marché du travail (CPMT)
- Official recognition of the Skills Training Certificate and access to student financial assistance
- Dynamic, proactive information for citizens, both young people and adults, on the needs of the job market and the training supply for filling available jobs
- Training support for small- and medium-sized businesses, by promoting innovative projects, including mutual training (groups of small- and medium-sized businesses)
- Pilot projects in CEGEPs for a new technical program taking a modular approach
- Establishment of a single service point for recognizing candidates' acquired competencies and initiation of a collaborative process between MELS and the CPMT to establish common criteria for recognition
- Establishment of resource centres to consolidate expertise in the recognition of acquired competencies
- Establishment of a working group to improve student retention in technical training
- Establishment of a regional gateway for businesses with respect to training and managing their labour force
- Mobilization of workers and companies for job skills development, by supporting the CPMT's initiative, Investissement compétences
- Improved support for part-time training for employees
- Increased number of internships in the workplace and the development of an internship database on the Online Placement Web site.
Over 130 people took part in the provincewide meeting intended to improve the match between training and the needs of the job market. Participants included members of the education and business communities as well as representatives of unions, professional associations, government, and student, community and political groups.
"We are of the opinion that the proposals made today will go a long way toward helping the labour market to deal with the issues it is currently facing, with over 700 000 positions to be filled between now and 2014. Our two departments will be working together to implement these strategies as quickly as possible," the ministers concluded.
Sources:
Dave Leclerc
Press attaché for the Minister of Education, Recreation and Sports
418-644-0664
Nicolas Murgia
Press attaché for the Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity
418-643-4810
