"How can we participate with you to help your career pivot or get your next role?"

Part two in our Secondment Diaries series following a Laurier employee for a year as she splits her time between employers

The Waterloo Region Future of Work and Learning Coalition has been working to bring light to not only the ways employers can prepare for the future, but also the way educational institutions can evolve to meet the needs of tomorrow’s workforce.

As a partner in the Waterloo Region Future of Work and Learning Coalition, Wilfrid Laurier University is looking at these challenges as an opportunity to reposition themselves as more than a four-year stop on a traditional learning and career journey.

The changing nature of work and the workforce has changed the way the university looks at credentialing. As the career ladder evolves into a career web, the university wants to build a relationship with their students and alumni for their entire lifetime - not just four or five years. “How can we participate with you to help your career pivot or get your next role?,” asked Sheldon Pereira, the Chief of Staff and Director, Strategic Initiatives at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Share your Future of Work and Learning story

As always, we’re looking for stories and examples of initiatives underway within the community to help workers and workplaces get ahead of Future of Work and Learning trends. Send us a summary of your story and we will select a few to be profiled in future newsletters and on social to bring to life the great things already happening in the community. 

Communitech Breakfast Series: Our Automated Future featuring Ajay Agrawal

Wednesday, Mar. 25 - Kitchener, ON

Join celebrated author, Creative Destruction Lab founder and leading authority in AI, Ajay Agrawal (!!!), as he translates the sweeping power of machines and breaks down why it all matters. How can we take advantage of the growing market for AI? How can we allocate capital and investments today to best prepare for tomorrow? How do we prepare for the disruptions—to long-standing industries, to millions of jobs, and to age-old notions about work, employment, and leisure—that will result?

Innovation Corridor Summit: Fueling the Corridor with Talent

Wednesday, Apr. 29 - Kitchener, ON

Canada’s Innovation Corridor Summit will explore the talent needed to fuel the Innovation Corridor. The need and desired outcome is an economic zone where companies have the people and talent for their businesses to achieve the tremendous opportunities and growth before us.

The summit features an exciting Future of Work & Learning panel with coalition partners Dr. Norah McRae (Associate Provost, Co-operative & Experiential Education, University of Waterloo), Mike Doughty (President & CEO, Manulife Canada) and Simon Chan (Vice President, Talent, Academy, and Future of Work, Communitech).

Meet your peers in the Future of Work & Learning

Sign up today to join the new Future of Work & Learning Peer 2 Peer meetup starting this spring. This P2P group is open to any individual interested in learning more about the Future of Work and Learning and keeping up with the trends that are going to impact how organizations attract and retain talent.

Why Talented People Don’t Use Their Strengths

We’re more than what people endorse us for on LinkedIn, so why do we so often undervalue what we inherently do well? Whitney Johnson digs into the reasons in this piece in the Harvard Business Review.

Gig economy’s new deal for Silicon Valley’s white-collar workers

Deloitte predicts the number of white-collar gig workers in the US will hit 42 million this year. Who’s driving this trend? Younger workers. The Financial Times has the full story on the trends driving younger workers towards gig work.

Getting Windsor-Essex Ready for the Future of Work and Learning

What does it take to get a community ready for the Future of Work & Learning. Communitech is helping WETech Alliance and Workforce WindsorEssex with their community event Getting Windsor-Essex Ready for the Future of Work and Learning on Mar. 12 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. “This is a great opportunity to get the community together to discuss how careers and workplaces are being redefined and the potential implications for communities like Windsor-Essex. At the end of the day, no organization, academic institution, or government can tackle this alone.” said Yvonne Pilon, CEO of WETech Alliance.