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What politicians are doing is creating the illusion that they are creating jobs by short-term fixes that actually weaken the region’s ability to compete,

Both SFMade and its New York cousin, Made in N.Y.C., are increasingly able to share success stories of how manufacturing has developed new models for doing business in the 21st century. The monolithic single-industry model has evolved as manufacturers see the benefits of being smaller and paying attention to how patterns of consumption, ownership and use are shifting.

“For decades we have developed a culture of disposability — from consumer goods to medical instruments and machine tools. To fuel economic growth, marketers replaced longevity with planned obsolescence — and our mastery of technology has given birth to ever-accelerating unplanned obsolescence. I think there is increasing awareness that this is no longer sustainable on the scale we have developed.”

“It’s not some cute cottage industry,” she says, referring to the prevailing tendency to view “local” as something generally limited to cupcakes, jam or “My Mom Went to _____ And All I Got Was This T-Shirt.” The “number one thing we do,” Sofis continues, “is facilitate new connections.”

return of scarce labour and rising construction costs will be the downside of renewed economic growth in Alberta

Alberta's 5.7-per-cent unemployment rate in February was tied with Saskatchewan for second-lowest in the country behind Manitoba. Private-sector job growth in the province leads the nation at five per cent year-over-year.

But 62 per cent of business leaders also reported that finding workers was a problem, he said.

Here’s the game plan: raise starting pay, accelerate salary bumps to keep up with a young teacher’s rapid improvement in effectiveness, offer ways for teachers to take on additional responsibilities and thus make more money (like mentoring younger peers or taking on more students), and offer portable retirement benefits that allow people to build retirement wealth without signing on for a lifetime of teaching. Finance this all by allowing class sizes to rise modestly, maximizing smart uses of technology, and trimming the number of aides and specialists our schools employ.

When you were a kid, could you, your teachers, or your parents imagine your current job? Plenty of us go to work every day in careers that didn't exist when we were in grade school. How can schools set the next generation up for success when we don't have a clear picture of what the jobs of the future will be? The growing consensus is that we need to shift schools toward to fostering creativity and conceptual thinking abilities, and a new project called Imagination: Creating the Future of Education and Work wants to help educators figure out how to do it. 

Five key trends likely to shape the world of work in coming years

GREYING WORK FORCE:

GOING GLOBAL: Overseas experience, familiarity with other cultures and the ability to speak multiple languages will take on ever-greater importance in this globalized economy.

the purpose is to attract people and prospective employees “and to address our longer-term workforce needs.”

The second reason is to further develop and diversify our business base in a more sustainable way to complement our strength in areas like energy,

third reason, particularly coming back from our research, is to highlight how this city has evolved from an arts, a culture and a cosmopolitan global business centre perspective