Program directory · Employment and Social Development Canada

Future Skills

Department: Employment and Social Development Canada
Program code: BGO21 (HRSD)
Core responsibility: Learning, Skills Development and Employment
In Departmental Plans: 2018-19 – 2026-27 · New since an earlier plan

What it does

Future Skills helps to ensure that Canada’s labour market policies and programs are future fit. In collaboration with provinces and territories, the private sector, labour organizations, education and training institutions, not-for-profits, and Indigenous groups, it identifies emerging skills needs, and develops and promotes proven practices. ESDC provides funding to the Future Skills Centre to develop, test, and evaluate innovative skills training approaches, with a focus on inclusion of underrepresented groups. The Centre shares its findings through conferences, regional events and other forums. Additionally, ESDC’s Future Skills Office fosters partnerships across federal, provincial, and territorial governments to promote uptake of policy and program relevant evidence and insights.

Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.

History and lineage

First appears in GC InfoBase's actual spending by program in 2018-19. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).

Bars: spending by fiscal year (dark: actual; light: actual restated on the 2017-18 program structure; outlined: the latest plan's forecast; grey: related programs). Bands: each program in the lineage over the years it has data.

Program	Relation	Years with data	Actual spending over those years
Future Skills	This program	2018-19 – 2028-29	$450M

No earlier or later program in the same department has a similar name.

Significant changes in scope and budget

Detected from the data: renames between plans, programs it appears to replace, merge with or split into (matched by name), year-over-year changes in spending of at least 25% and $5M, or in employees of at least 20% and 25 FTEs, linked budget measures, and results indicators added or dropped.

Year	What changed	Source
2019-20	Employees (FTEs) 29, against 1 in 2018-19 (+2800%).	FTEs (GC InfoBase)
2019-20	Spending $50M, against $21.2M in 2018-19 (+136%).	Actual spending (GC InfoBase)
2020-21	Indicators added: Number of partnerships and stakeholders who report awareness of in demand skills.	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)
2020-21	Indicators dropped: Number of organizations aware of Future Skills	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)
2020-21	Spending $75.6M, against $50M in 2019-20 (+51%).	Actual spending (GC InfoBase)
2021-22	Indicators added: Number of partnerships and stakeholders who report awareness of in demand skills in comparison to 2020-2021 results.	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)
2021-22	Indicators dropped: Number of partnerships and stakeholders who report awareness of in demand skills.	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)
2022-23	Indicators added: Number of engagement activities undertaken by Future Skills with organizations and individuals in the skills development ecosystem	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)
2022-23	Indicators dropped: Number of partnerships and stakeholders who report awareness of in demand skills in comparison to 2020-2021 results.	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)
2023-24	Indicators added: Number of project participants who report knowledge acquired for improved decision making on in demand skills	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)
2023-24	Indicators dropped: Number of engagement activities undertaken by Future Skills with organizations and individuals in the skills development ecosystem	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)
2025-26	Indicators added: Number of engagement and knowledge dissemination activities conducted by Future Skills that share evidence and research produced by Future Skills.	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)
2025-26	Indicators dropped: Number of project participants who report knowledge acquired for improved decision making on in demand skills	Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase)

Success criteria

The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.

Historical: targets against results

Number of project participants who report knowledge acquired for improved decision making on in demand skills

Expected result: Canadians and actors in skills development systems have access to research on emerging in-demand skills

Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.

Report year	Target	Due	Result	Status
2023-24	Not applicable	2024	1709 Data was collected through a survey distributed in 2023 to project participants enrolled in a Future Skills Centre-funded project.	No result reported
2024-25	≥ 2,500	2025	598 The actual result of this indicator in 2023-2024 year was 1,709 which informed the target of 2,500. The baseline was set in 2023 and assumed new projects would be added with an expected extension of the Centre’s contribution agreement. However, in 2024-2025, the Centre shifted its focus to Knowledge Mobilization to meet program outcomes. The Centre focused on completing existing projects and init…	Not met

Number of engagement activities undertaken by Future Skills with organizations and individuals in the skills development ecosystem

Expected result: Employment and training service providers and policy makers have increased awareness of in-demand skills and effective training practices.

Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.

Report year	Target	Due	Result	Status
2022-23	≥ 2,250	2023	2,146 Results achieved are within acceptable range of established target.	Not met

Number of partnerships and stakeholders who report awareness of in demand skills in comparison to 2020-2021 results.

Expected result: Employment and training service providers and policy makers have increased awareness of in-demand skills and effective training practices.

Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.

Report year	Target	Due	Result	Status
2021-22	—	2022	2,541 The Future Skills Centre completes quarterly activity reports that includes demonstrating the centre's engagement and activities as per the Contribution Agreement. For fiscal year 2021-2022, the Future Skills Centre completed a total of 2,541 partnership and stakeholder awareness and engagement activities during the four quarters compared to 2,250 engagement activities in 2020-2021.	No result reported

Number of partnerships and stakeholders who report awareness of in demand skills.

Expected result: Employment and training service providers and policy makers have increased awareness of in-demand skills and effective training practices.

Report year	Target	Due	Result	Status
2020-21	No target will be established as this is a baseline year.	2021	Not available The data to inform this indicator is being collected through the Future Skills formative evaluation (the “Two-Year Review”). Complications from COVID and shifting priorities have caused delays in data collection. Data will not be available for analysis and reporting until October 2021 (anticipated). Actual results will be reported in the DRR 2021-2022.	No result reported

Number of organizations aware of Future Skills

Expected result: Partners and stakeholders are aware of Future Skills

Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.

Report year	Target	Due	Result	Status
2019-20	≥ 600	2020	669	Met

Current: the 2026-27 plan's targets

Number of engagement and knowledge dissemination activities conducted by Future Skills that share evidence and research produced by Future Skills.

Expected result: Skills development partners have access to research on emerging in-demand skills.

Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.

Report year	Target	Due	Result	Status
2026-27	≥ 80	2027	—	Planned

Future goals: targets due after 2026-27

No targets with a later due date.

Spending and employees: planned against actual

Spending

Outlined bar: planned in that year's Departmental Plan (dashed: the latest plan, for years not yet reported). Filled bar: actual.

Show the numbers

Fiscal year	Planned	Actual
2018-19	$0	$21.2M
2019-20	$49.5M	$50M
2020-21	$74.6M	$75.6M
2021-22	$74.5M	$75.3M
2022-23	$74.5M	$75.9M
2023-24	$74.5M	$76.1M
2024-25	$74.8M	$75.4M
2025-26	$74.9M	—
2026-27	$62.8M	—
2027-28	$47.8M*	—
2028-29	$47.7M*	—

Employees (FTEs)

Outlined bar: planned in that year's Departmental Plan (dashed: the latest plan, for years not yet reported). Filled bar: actual.

Show the numbers

Fiscal year	Planned	Actual
2018-19	0	1
2019-20	14	29
2020-21	14	32
2021-22	14	24
2022-23	14	26
2023-24	14	18
2024-25	14	21
2025-26	14	—
2026-27	13	—
2027-28	13*	—
2028-29	13*	—

Planned spending, plan by plan

Each row is one year's Departmental Plan and its forecast for the next three fiscal years; read a column down to see how the forecast for one year changed. The last row is what was actually spent. Click an amount for its source. Biggest changes in federal spending plans

Plan	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25	2025-26	2026-27	2027-28	2028-29
2018-19 plan	$0	$0	$0
2019-20 plan		$49,468,174	$74,602,596	$74,469,343
2020-21 plan			$74,596,533	$74,463,280	$74,463,280
2021-22 plan				$74,545,161	$74,548,529	$74,548,529
2022-23 plan					$74,515,744	$74,515,744	$1,788,990
2023-24 plan						$74,535,045	$1,808,291	$1,808,291
2024-25 plan							$74,806,532	$74,839,345	$2,100,074
2025-26 plan								$74,863,200	$62,910,619	$62,910,619
2026-27 plan									$62,755,547	$47,753,085	$47,749,403
Actual	$21,235,625	$50,025,298	$75,556,459	$75,285,076	$75,929,168	$76,056,500	$75,424,118

Actual spending is from Departmental Results Reports and the Public Accounts, as published in GC InfoBase. FTEs are full-time equivalents.