Empowering Tomorrow's Careers: Insights from First Work's AMPLIFY Summit

This April, Blueprint had the privilege of attending First Work 's AMPLIFY Summit at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. This year’s theme was ‘Workforce Catalyst: Building Healthy Ecosystems,’ and demonstrated how healthy leadership—and the leaders who exemplify it—are integral to the strength of Ontario’s employment services ecosystem.??

At Blueprint, we collaborate with leaders across the country to help shape a more inclusive, responsive and resilient skills ecosystem. Here are three key takeaways from the AMPLIFY Summit that resonated with us and will likely inform the way we’re working on behalf of jobseekers, employers, career development practitioners and communities alike.?

1. How AI Will Transform Employment Services

#ArtificialIntelligence will continue to be a powerful tool for the employment sector—provided that our best values are reflected in it. In this talk, keynote speaker Hosni Zaouali ( Hoss - Hosni Zaouali ?????????????????????????????????? ) —CEO of ConnectED labs —explored the ways “AI-driven tools can improve job matching accuracy, personalize career development paths, and offer real-time labour market analytics to inform decision-making processes,” and highlighted case studies where AI’s been “leveraged to address critical challenges in the employment sector, including skill mismatch, access to opportunities, and the dynamic nature of labour demand.” Zaouali’s discussion also explored the ethical considerations in deploying AI technologies, such as safeguarding data privacy, mitigating algorithmic bias, and preserving human agency amid automation.?

As we’ve observed in our work building data capacity and digital skills in the sector, nonprofits leaders are motivated to understand the diverse impacts of AI and strategize ways to capture the value it can generate. Nonprofits need more support to leverage AI ethically and responsibly—and Blueprint is excited to do more of this in the year ahead.

2. How Integrated Employment Services (IES) Can Chart a Path Forward

In this keynote, Kirsten Cutler , Executive Director of the Ministry of Immigration, Labour, Training, and Skill Development (MLITSD), offered insights into Ontario’s cross-governmental efforts to integrate employment services and streamline client pathways. Throughout, Cutler investigated the current labour market trends impacting Ontario’s workforce dynamics; assessed innovative approaches and upcoming developments in Employment Ontario programs; and outlined a wide range of employment and training programs tailored to address changing workforce requirements. She also described how Ontario is fostering innovation to nurture the next generation of in-demand skills and is adopting a more sector-focused approach via the Skills Development Fund (SDF).

Innovation as a critical feature of a future state skills ecosystem, and we also see the future is particularly bright for sector-based models. Just as critically, we believe innovation funding needs to leverage the right kind of data to understand what is working across the skills program, and use data to strengthen learning via feedback loops. After all, what gets measured not only gets managed, but also gets improved.

3. How We Can Navigate 2040 and Beyond

In this talk, Heather Russek and Jessica Thornton from Creative Futures Studio investigated the ways work, careers, and career advancement will look in 2040—and what measures leaders should take to prepare. This session presented significant findings from the recently concluded Career Development in 2040 research series. From the impact of AI and automation to the challenges posed by climate change and geopolitical conflicts, macro factors are rapidly redefining employment in Canada.??

Through collaboration with the Canadian Career Development Foundation , we know career services are a powerful lever that can help workers stay ahead of labour market disruptions. To meet their potential, career service users and career development professionals across Canada need to feel informed, connected and empowered in the face of accelerating change.?

The AMPLIFY Summit offered valuable insights into new approaches and strategies that will help Ontarians navigate the evolving landscape of workforce development. We’re already looking forward to First Work’s FUTURES conference in October to continue learning and sharing insights about what’s next for employment services, sector-based training and the skills ecosystem.

Contributors:

• Sihwa Kim , Former Associate, Evidence Generation
• Natalie Conte , Associate Director, Policy & Partnerships

#FutureofWork #SkillsDevelopment #WorkforceTransformation #AIInnovation #OntarioWorkforce