April 2024

Dear friends, colleagues and supporters of Canada West Foundation:

Over the last decade, Skills, Innovation and Productivity (formerly known as the Human Capital Centre) has influenced policy on many workforce development and deployment issues – with an emphasis on moving towards a competency-based approach.

Our body of work includes papers on why ensuring employees have the full suite of competencies required by their jobs improves both safety outcomes and productivity, and how a competency-based approach can better match people with jobs and jobs with people.

Add in multiple publications on the importance of literacy in this knowledge-based economy, attention to the need for rapid upskilling and reskilling, major work on young talent attraction and retention in both Alberta and Manitoba, and work in the immigration and social service sectors – and it’s plain that we accomplished a lot since the work began in 2013.

My time at Canada West Foundation has been the most challenging and the most rewarding of my 50-year career. It has been a joy to work on important policy issues with intelligent, caring, knowledgeable, and dedicated colleagues. The best days included opportunities to talk to people on the front line – whether in social services, education, government or business. Everybody has a story, everybody can teach us something, and it has been an honour to learn from the people I have met and worked with over the years.

This last year has been especially productive, with four major projects all coming to end in Q1, 2024.

There could not be a better time to retire!

And so, this is to let you know that I will retire from my position as director of the centre effective April 15, 2024. However, I’m not yet ready to completely give up all the fun and am happy that the leadership team has agreed to keep me on as a Senior Fellow. Those of you who know Charlie, our office greeter, will understand that while he’s delighted I’ll soon have more time to walk him, he will still get to come to work occasionally – where he’s over-the-moon to be paid in doggie treats.

The work will continue in excellent hands. Jeff Griffiths, Senior Fellow and co-author on many of our most read reports, will move into my chair as Director of Skills, Innovation and Productivity (see Jeff’s bio below).

Thank you all for your support of me and our team of talented analysts, and of Canada West Foundation and the meaningful work we do every day.

Best regards,

Janet Lane

 

Jeff Griffiths
Jeff Griffiths is a leading Canadian practitioner in the field of competency-based management practices and a multi-award-winning certified management consultant with over 20 years of experience in the field. He has developed comprehensive national occupational analyses and standards for multiple Canadian HR Sector Councils, was part of the Canada West team that worked on a variety of impactful research and policy reports, and led the team that completed a major overhaul to the competency framework for the Certified Management Consultant profession in Canada. He has also developed certification and accreditation programs for the Canadian home inspection industry, the Canadian building code administration and enforcement profession, and the Canadian oil and gas sector’s “Petroleum Competency Program”. Read more…