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HR Capacity for Digital Media
The Project
Canada’s digital media industry is a fast-growing, dynamic and diverse contributor to Canada’s Digital Economy. Research from Industry Canada indicates that more than 52,000 professionals are employed in the industry. Annual revenues are estimated between $3.5 and $5.1 billion. In order to meet the industry’s ongoing human resource needs and to support Canada’s competitiveness globally, the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) is undertaking an initiative titled HR Capacity for Digital Media Project. Our objective? To equip digital media employers, employees and educators with the tools they need to make informed decisions, chart clear career paths, develop targeted education and training programs, and ensure Canada’s success in this pivotal global industry.
The Need
Digital media offers huge global selling opportunities—from gaming to internet, broadcasting, education, health, business and social media. ICTC has chosen to focus efforts on Canada’s human resource needs for the digital industry, based on the:
- Sector’s large revenue intake and potential
- high level of investment in the industry
- economic value of the jobs created by the industry
- lack of available detailed labour market information for the sector
- industry’s appeal to youth—a key target audience for ICT employers
Our Objectives
The HR Capacity for Digital Media Project will aim to fill critical knowledge gaps and contribute to Canada’s competitiveness in this industry. The project will:
- Establish standardized job titles, descriptions and competency profiles for a variety of roles in the digital media industry.
- Define clear career paths to demonstrate the vast range of opportunities in the industry and define potential for growth and movement between roles.
- Create skill benchmarks to allow employers and employees to keep up with rapid changes in the industry and refresh those benchmarks to ensure digital media professionals have and maintain the skills they need to perform.
- Support our educational and training institutions with the research and information they need to ensure a strong supply of professionals with the right blend of skills for the industry.
Our Vision
Our vision is to position Canada as a global leader in the Digital Economy by supporting the industry’s efforts to develop a highly skilled and competitive digital media workforce.
Our Mission
The Digital Media Project’s mission is to equip employers, educators, employees and job-seekers with high value HR resources to inform decision-making, keep pace with rapid industry change, support curriculum development and establish clear career paths.
The Benefits
Employers
- Access to updated labour market information for digital media in Canada.
- Better information and tools to manage human resource processes and support employee retention.
- Best practices for recruitment, managing staff, skills upgrading and employee development in the Human Resource Guide for Digital Media Companies.
Employees
- Information and tools to help you conduct your own skills gap analysis to plan your career advancement.
- Clearly defined career paths and options to help you understand the opportunities and identify the competencies you need for a variety of roles.
Educators and trainers
- Industry-validated information about the evolving skills required by digital media professionals.
- Research that will help you integrate key professional competency learning outcomes into your educational curriculum.
- Clear understanding of the changing roles and requirements within the industry, based on knowledge gathered from industry professionals and employers.
Partnering with Industry
- As with many of our initiatives, ICTC will work in close collaboration with industry to develop and implement the HR Capacity for Digital Media Project. This “for the industry, by the industry” effort will include:
- Strategic partnerships with digital media employers, professionals and educational institutions.
- Recruiting Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in focus groups to scope, identify, develop and validate the competency profiles and domain knowledge areas for this industry.
- Gathering input from industry to develop an analytical framework and labour market snapshot for digital media in Canada.
Our work on this project has already begun.
Planned Outcomes
- Defined digital media occupations, competency profiles and domain knowledge areas
- Better, more rigorous labour market intelligence for the industry
- Increased support for the ICT human resource efforts, including integrating international ICT professionals and securing future workers
- Better industry awareness of HR and labour market information product development, and the value it provides to organizations
- Influence the National Occupational Classification (NOC) and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) revisions to include digital media occupations, thus allowing Canada to collect and track labour market information over time
- Work with industry associations to influence Industry Canada and Statistics Canada’s descriptions of the digital media industry for consistency and clarity
- Create for Canada a workplace that is competitive, innovative and sustainable
Get Involved
The success of this project depends on you—digital media professionals, industry experts, trainers and educators. Get involved in this important “for the industry, by the industry” initiative.
Join our Subject Matter Expert team: Our experts—known as SMEs —are industry professionals from a wide range of careers in the digital media industry. (Click here for more information.) As a SME, you will participate in focus groups, online surveys and discussion rounds, contribute to defining priority digital media occupations, developing and validating the competency profiles.
To register as SME, please contact us at digitalmedia@ictc-ctic.ca or call 613-237-8551 ext 130
Become a Partner: Our partners are composed of educational institutions, government, digital media industry and industry stakeholders. As a partnering member, your institution or organization will among other things, participate in specialized panel discussions, feature speakers in selected workshops on the project and promote the project outcomes.
To become a partner, please contact us at digitalmedia@ictc-ctic.ca or call 613-237-8551 ext 130
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