2. Agenda Why do we need the OCWI? What is the OCWI? Who is the OCWI?
How does the OCWI Work?
Start Up Phase & Next steps
Research Team Start Up Activities
Questions

3. WHY the OCWI? $1B + investment on training and employment services
Drummond and others note problems in employment and training system, including:
Multiple entry points leading to client confusion
Program mix not aligned with labour market needs
More evidence about what works to ensure clients with greatest need receive appropriate service
Lack of clearly defined and measurable program outcomes
Good practices are not necessarily shared
Overlapping delivery networks with duplicative administration

4. What We Need? Local solutions to local needs and opportunities
Realign programming based on evidence, focused on improved client outcomes in order to:
Help more Ontarians get and retain employment
Adjust more nimbly to labour market changes
Re-skill or upskill for sustainable employment;
Address local and/or skills gap and mismatches

5. WHAT is the OCWI?
VISION
A centre focused on evidence-based research and cross-sector collaboration grounded in innovation and enabled by technology in order to address employers’ needs for talent and Ontarions’ needs for employment and contribute to a more skilled, resilient and productive Ontario workforce.
HOW DO WE DEFINE IMPACT?
SROI & ROI and results for business, stakeholders and clients
Effective workforce development with measurable positive outcomes for jobseekers
Meaningful secure employment with positive wage trajectories
Effectively and efficiently serving diverse populations and regions
The impact part doesn’t fit here, it’s not part of a vision.

6. Goals - What Will the OCWI Do?
Develop new evidence-based approaches to inform a systems change strategy
Research, pilot and evaluate projects and test innovative approaches
Create a single coordinated access point for research, evidence-based employment and training approaches
Build capacity and support for a community of practice offering new knowledge
Connect employers and service providers to define priorities and match supply to demand
Provide a state of the art web based platform to share knowledge and best practices

7. WHO is the OCWI? Partners Initial Supporters 7
Representing 20,000 employers
With 60,000 employer members
Representing 4,000 employers 7

8. HOW DOES the OCWI WORK? Systems Perspective:
Understand how the pieces fit together
Find the levers
Promote sustainable system innovation (local, regional, provincial….)
Break down program silos
Go from practice to policy vs. policy to practice

9. OCWI will be Evidence Based
Use many sources of data
Understand and share what we know and do not know
Identify promising practices
Develop a rigorous and practical program evaluation model

10. Rigorous Evaluation Criteria
Centre will test and evaluate new approaches and models that achieve impact
Evaluation of pilot and demonstration projects will be shared with communities of practice to build capacity and:
Improve coordination, integration and access
Enhance service delivery models to improve outcomes overall and for targeted groups
Meet the needs of employers and jobseekers

11. OCWI will be Consultative and Inclusive
Engage stakeholders across the system to better understand their challenges, opportunities and capacity
Enhance existing networks and support communities of practice linking employers and service providers
Recognize geographic and population group differences and local activities and nuances

12. Emphasis on Diversity Youth Immigrants Aboriginal Peoples Francophones
Rural and Remote
Persons with Disabilities
Long-term
Unemployed
Underemployed Persons
Francophones
Social Assistance Recipients (SARs)
Aboriginal Peoples
Immigrants
Youth
Gananoque/Kingston (East)
Thunder Bay (North)
Sudbury (Francophone)
Toronto (Central)
London (West)

13. Start-Up Phase Developing the business plan
Focus on:
Developing the business plan
Reviewing the existing literature and data to identify what we know, what we don’t know and what we need to learn
Consulting and engaging with stakeholders (primarily but not exclusively the Employment Ontario Network)
Establishing the infrastructure (office, staff, space etc.)
Setting up organizational structure ( steering committee, working groups, regional hubs)

14. Research Team Start Up Activities
Analysis of Labour Market Challenges
What works for whom – and under what circumstances
Recommend Strategies and Projects to Test

15. More Specifically:
Reviewed over 250 documents related to workforce challenges, opportunities and evidence of promising practice,
Investigating and interrogating analysing various data sets on Ontario’s labour market,
Conducting key informant interviews and collaborating with stakeholder engagement team for more robust understandings, and
Examining approaches and criteria for “grant making” (demonstration sites and further research).

16. What We Have Learned – Defining the challenges:
The evidence on the effectiveness on our workforce interventions is mixed (Drummond, Lankin, Halliwell, OECD)
Our system is not yielding optimal results for employers or job seekers. Broad agreement that we need to better match the supply and demand aspects of the labour market (labour market friction).
Need to be more explicit in our efforts to braid productivity for industry, economic development for regions and economic mobility for workers.
Far too many Social Assistance clients remain “long-term” recipients. This remains a seemingly intractable problem for the province.

17. We still have lots of questions about our Workforce Development System
What programs in Ontario are working for various client groups (job seeker or employers) and under what circumstances?
The longer term impact of specific employment and training programs on employment, earnings, and productivity.
There is an emergence of a new generation of programs in the province. How effective are these new models?
Can the design of employment and training programs adjust to the constant changes in the labour market?

18. What Counts as Evidence? A Hierarchy
Good practice: ‘we’ve done it, we like it, and it feels like we are making an impact’.
Promising approaches: some positive findings but the evaluations are not consistent or rigorous enough to be sure.
Research–based: the program or practice is based on sound theory informed by a growing body of empirical research.
Evidence–based: the program or practice has been rigorously evaluated and has consistently been shown to work.

19. Emergent Themes in Workforce Development – What Works
Integrated and Hybrid Programs,
Customized and Accelerated Training,
Behavioural Economics
Sectoral Programs

20. Questions

21. FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit: http://www.ocwi-coie.ca
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Consultation Questions

22. Consultation Questions
What are the biggest challenges for workforce development? Now? In 2-5 years?
What are the priority needs that are not being addressed today? What are the gaps?
What are the most effective programs you are aware of? What makes them effective?
What are the obstacles to developing a more effective workforce development system?
Through your lens, what would success of the Centre look like at the end of 2 years? Longer term?
How could the Centre best support your work?