Vocational education and training - VET

As the Canadian economy continues to slow, Canada's job market is changing, and that's had an effect on the skills that employers are looking for.

In 2023, amid record-low levels of unemployment, large swaths of the labour market faced skills and staffing shortages. But 2023 saw the labour market swing back in favour of employers as the unemployment rate ticks up.

Meanwhile, 2023 also saw the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), as well as an unprecedented number of cyberattacks against large organizations.


Here's a look at some of the top skills and industries that will be in high demand in 2024.

Analysis from the Canadian System for Tracking Apprenticeship Qualifications (CANTRAQ) provides the projected targets for the total number of new apprentices likely needed to meet requirements. From 2020 to 2024, an estimated 155,338 new journey persons will be required to sustain workforce
certification levels across Red Seal trades in Canada, two-thirds (67 per cent) of which will be concentrated in 15 Red Seal trades. Keeping pace with the demand for skills and workforce certification over the long-term will require attracting nearly 350,740 new apprentices over the next five years.

For the engineering sector to reduce its skills shortage, it needs to employ around 186,000 skilled recruits each year until 2024.