Confronting this talent challenge extends beyond the capacity of any single government level, educational institution, sector, or employer.

In 2023-24, the LearningCITY Collective piloted the Open Learning Lab, hosting over 40 events that reached 3,700 professionals and 530 classes for 1,000 learners over eight months.

The lab's mandate was to identify, resource, test, and scale innovations in skills development. To deliver this mandate, it is designed as a skunkworks project, removed from the structures and cultures of the current learning communities. The goal is to bring together innovative thinkers and doers from different learning communities, including talent seekers, talent developers, talent stewards, and learners, to collaborate and prepare Calgarians for the future.

Between 2023 and 2025, Calgary Economic Development, in partnership with the Government of Alberta and the Government of Canada, piloted TalentED YYC.

TalentED YYC was designed as a resource platform to support Calgary and employers interested in working with student talent.

The Secretariate team managed the TalentED YYC pilot project and was based out of Calgary Economic Development. The team provided expert guidance to employers, collaborated with post-secondary partners to identify best practices for work-integrated learning, managed the TalentED YYC website and portal, and reported on the project’s progress.

Calgary on the Precipice was a year-long study of Calgary’s labour market and learning system, co-authored by ten researchers from Mount Royal University, the University of Calgary, Alberta University for the Arts, and Calgary Economic Development. To become an adaptable city, Calgary must learn faster and better than others.

The Competencies for Life (C4L) pilot project is a set of 25 enabling competencies anchored in six clusters: problem-solving, self-reliance, collaboration, communication, core literacies, and core workplace skills.

Trusted Skills certification recognizes the skills and knowledge people have developed through learning, work, and experience. The first phase of the Trusted Skills pilot ran in 2022-23, and the second phase is scheduled for fall 2024.

The transition from student to professional can be challenging. AccelerateU is a multi-year pilot project led by Mount Royal University that tests the impact of embedding postsecondary learning in a professional environment with real-time access to practitioners.

Phase 1 (2022-23): Delivering classes for 300 students embedded at Platform Calgary.

Phase 2 (2023-24): This pilot included delivering 40 business classes to 1,300 learners over two years. The final project report will be released in the fall of 2024.

Phase 3 (2024-25): This phase embeds classroom learning in the workplace, facilitating increased structured and unstructured interaction between learners and professionals. It will take place in 2024-25.

The results of each phase are being evaluated as part of the Community Embedded Learning Study.

This study builds on the AccelerateU pilot project and explores the opportunities for expanding different forms of community-embedded learning in Calgary. Three research questions guide this study:

What are the aspirations of learners, educators, and community partners?

How can the system deliver on these aspirations?

How can we operationalize the optimal model?

Designing YOU is a series of tools developed to support the integration of career and learner pathways. It gives learners control over those decisions and guides them through designing the person they want to launch into the world.