CAPLA's Fall 2025 Webinar Series (2 of 3)
Virtual: 12:00-1:30 p.m. (ET)
Presenters 1: Dan McFaull, Managing Partner and Taruna Goel, Senior Consultant and RPL Strategist, North Pacific Metrics Inc.; Michelle Veinot, Executive Director, and Judy Dickson, Program Director, Automotive Sector Council of Nova Scotia
Description: Empowering Worker Development Through RPL: Industry Examples
By assessing and validating existing competencies, Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) offers practical, competency-based pathways for individual career growth and workforce development. This session will highlight two recent sector-driven initiatives applying RPL tools to address urgent skills shortages for the Nova Scotia Automotive Sector Council (2020–2024). The session will focus on the creation of RPL certification pathways for Tire and Maintenance Technicians and Collision Preppers, supporting uncredentialed workers to gain recognition and achieve industry certification.
The presentation will outline how these tools and pathways were designed and applied in industry, and will include lessons learned about embedding RPL within workforce development strategies. Breakout room discussions will give participants the opportunity to ask questions, share insights, and explore how similar approaches could be applied in their own sectors.
Presenter 2: Dr. David J. FInch, Professor, Bissett School of Business. Mount Royal University
Description: The Coming Storm. Leading a Paradigm Shift in Learning
Canada has developed an exceptional human capital system, one that reflects the past rather than the present or the future. As a result, the human capital system that has sustained our province’s social and economic prosperity over the past 120 years doesn’t possess the capacity to lead Canada into the future. The solution is not as simple as spending more money; the future demands a paradigm shift in how Canada develops its human capital.
The first step is to detach from the current model and ask a fundamental question: What is the most effective way to unlock the full productivity of all Canadians?
Over the past year, our multidisciplinary team of researchers and industry experts at The Productivity Project has explored this question through a six-part report series titled "Productivity and People." We conclude that Canada must adopt a new learning paradigm—one that unbundles learning from credentials and embraces “open learning.” Like open innovation in technology, open learning recognizes that education happens everywhere: in workplaces, communities, and self-directed environments. It transforms education from a one-way ladder into a dynamic climbing wall of limitless pathways. By embracing open, lifelong learning ecosystems and dismantling legacy silos between policymakers, employers, and educators, Canada can unlock the full productivity potential of its people and secure long-term prosperity.
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