Reimagining Career Services

Rethinking our approach to work and learning

Canada’s world of work is shifting rapidly. Automation, the rise of gig work, climate change, the pandemic, an aging populace, and beyond are reshaping how people build careers and how employers sustain their workforce.

These changes have exposed deep gaps in our employment ecosystem: services that don’t meet the needs of today’s workers, employers struggling without adequate support, and practitioners asked to do more without the tools and training to succeed.

Where the ecosystem falls short

Our current ecosystem fails to meet the full needs of four key groups:

• Individuals facing complex barriers. Many unemployed Canadians experience intersecting challenges, such as poor health, unstable housing, limited childcare, and financial insecurity. Existing employment services often prioritize rapid job placement over long-term stability, pushing people into low-wage or precarious roles that don’t address their underlying needs and can lead to repeated cycles of unemployment.
• Mid-career workers. Canadians in their 30s, 40s, and 50s are increasingly expected to reskill, adapt to automation, or transition into new industries. Yet current systems rarely support career pivots while people remain employed. Services are often only available once workers lose their jobs, leaving those in precarious or disrupted sectors without proactive guidance.
• Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs make up over 90% of Canadian businesses and employ two-thirds of the private-sector workforce, but many lack the resources for structured workforce planning. Without accessible, affordable tools and services, many struggle with recruitment, retention, and training—pressures that have only grown in the wake of the pandemic and ongoing labour shortages.
• ‍Career development practitioners (CDPs). CDPs provide critical guidance to Canadians navigating disruption, but their profession remains fragmented and under-resourced. Training and professional development opportunities are inconsistent, national standards are only emerging, and recognition of their role is limited. Without stronger supports, practitioners cannot fully meet the increasingly complex needs of the workers and employers they serve.

A portfolio of innovation

In response to these shortcomings, Blueprint launched the Re-imagining Career Services (RCS) initiative with funding from the Future Skills Centre (FSC).

Rather than a single solution, RCS is testing multiple new models to serve different parts of the system—unemployed individuals with complex barriers, mid-career workers navigating transitions, SMEs addressing recruitment and retention, and practitioners who guide Canadians through disruption. Each project is co-designed with partners on the ground, piloted in real-world contexts, and evaluated to generate evidence on what works and what doesn’t.