369 Global Global Skilling Centres Building Canada’s Talent Pipelines Abroad Canada is facing growing skills gaps that are holding back our economic growth and threatening the availability of services on which Canadians rely. The country already faces critical shortages in vocational roles like health care, child care, and Information and Communications Technology professions. Canada needs coordination and creative policy solutions to slow this trend and source in-demand talent. To address these challenges, Canada will need innovative new approaches. 369 Global has developed a promising approach to Canada’s vocational skills gap called ‘Global Skilling Centres (GSCs)’. Introducing the Challenge Current approaches to correcting labour shortages are not sufficient Canada’s Skills and Labour Market Gaps Significant skills and labour shortages threaten Canada’s prosperity Aligning Global Training with Canadian Immigration Canada’s identity and success have long been shaped by the contributions of immigrants. Global Examples of International TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training. Global Skilling Centres Applying International Insights to the Canadian Context Recommendations To effectively support trainees to develop Canadian-recognized skills, we need a supportive environment of policy and partnerships The Path Forward This is the moment for Canada to consider innovative approaches to addressing skills and labour shortages through tactical immigration and labour mobility policy. Offering technical and vocational training (TVET) abroad is not a new concept. In fact, Canada is lagging behind peer countries like Australia, Germany, and the UK in exploring the benefits of international TVET, including to support labour mobility. Global Skilling Centres would support Canada to offer our world-class TVET abroad. A coordinated approach from government, institutions and industries would allow GSCs to harness best practices in training and leverage labour market information, industry input, and other considerations to ensure training offerings match Canada’s unique needs. Recommendations The GSC model can be a nimble solution to closing the skills and labour market gaps in Canada. The impact of GSCs will be dependent on a supportive policy environment designed by key partners including federal, provincial, and territorial governments, industry partners, and diaspora community leaders. This policy paper lays out 16 recommendations for key partners to support the success of GSCs in the following areas: Providing supportive funding to set up the GSC model for success Developing and refining immigration pathways that align with the GSC model and support vocationally-trained immigrants Enabling wraparound immigration and support services for GSC trainees Developing strong employer partnerships to support job readiness and pathways to employment Building trust in Global Skilling Centres Drawing on the expertise of newcomer communities to support GSC graduate Establishing a Government of Canada working table on international TVET and labour mobility to further explore opportunities to leverage the GSC model