• Global business skills are taught in technical, engineering, and business programs in all Canadian colleges and universities.
• Businesses are effectively able to leverage the inclusiveness and collaborative potential of Canada’s multicultural population.
• The linguistic and cultural skills of the workforce give Canadian businesses a competitive edge in international markets.
• Canada’s multicultural workforce provides businesses with a unique understanding of other markets and business cultures, as well as the contacts necessary for global business development.

Challenges

• Business perspectives tend to narrow perceptions of challenges and opportunities to local, domestic, or North American circumstances.
• Young people in business, engineering, or technical programs are not being taught the knowledge or skills required to do business in other languages or cultures.
• There is a lack of people with a mix of technical, business, linguistic, and cultural skills.
• Smaller Canadian companies tend to contract their global business skills requirements out to consultants, business services, or trade commissioners instead of developing their own capabilities.
• Many smaller firms do not know how to access expertise or training programs on global business development.

Recommendations for Action

Manufacturers, educators, and parents must encourage young people to strengthen and diversify their foreign language skills and their knowledge of other countries and cultures.

Manufacturers must do more to share best practice and experiences in operating in foreign markets.

Business associations, business and financial services, and business support programs run by governments must work more closely with colleges and the Forum for International Trade Training (FITT) to communicate their global skills development programs to their members.

Colleges and universities must include global skills development as part of their business, engineering, and technical curricula.

Manufacturers, colleges, universities, and training programs must work together to integrate recent immigrants more effectively into positions in which their skills and experience can be leveraged by companies operating in international markets.