Workforce data – discussing the pros and cons from three completely different perspectives

The Valley Regional Enterprise Network is a publicly funded organization dedicated to supporting the local economic development of six municipalities and one First Nation in the Annapolis Valley region of Nova Scotia. As the Senior Economic Development Officer Richelle works one on one with businesses and leads regional industry sector development projects. She was the team lead when with Valley’s Regional Workforce Strategy was being developed.

Richelle was educated in the Annapolis Valley, completing her BA at Acadia University, an Advanced Diploma at NSCC and has also completed several job development training programs as well an entrepreneurship program. She is currently working on her EDAC certification.

When Richelle isn’t working with the Valley REN, you can find her at community events, volunteering, or enjoying trails and beaches. She is dedicated to helping others and creating welcoming and inclusive communities.

Ron Samson leads Magnet's Insight Team of data analysts and researchers. Ron has over ten years of experience working in workforce development and social service research and delivery. Before joining Magnet, he was a manager in WoodGreen Community Services' Innovation Lab, where he worked on a variety of research, evaluation, and participatory design projects in a range of areas including employment services, sectoral training, affordable housing, newcomer and youth services. He has written and contributed to numerous research papers which have influenced the field of workforce development. Ron believes strongly that those with lived expertise know best how to solve the issues that impact them, and that we have a moral and ethical responsibility to challenge inequity and discrimination. His areas of expertise include quantitative and qualitative data analysis, program design, process and outcome evaluation, participatory action research, and service delivery.

Jason Dias leads Magnet's labour market and skills information tools and applications development. Jason has over ten years of experience working in economic development and workforce development. Before joining Magnet, Jason was a Senior Consultant with MDB Insight, where he worked on several economic development strategies, workforce development strategies, and cultural plans for municipalities across North America. At Magnet, Jason has been pioneering a movement to improve access to practical labour market and skills information through the use of relatable tools and applications. Jason has been critical in working with governments, industry associations and career practitioners, in understanding what data and needs these institutions require to better understand labour markets, skill gaps and training environments. Jason believes strongly that Canada has no shortage of labour market information, but rather that the data is fragmented, often hard to access, and has many gaps in being able to mobilize the knowledge the data contains. His goal is to improve that knowledge mobilization.

Chief workforce & labour market researcher and a member of the college’s newly formed Business Intelligence and Research Services team. Jason advises Fleming on emerging career opportunities and labour market trends to support program development and program mix analysis. Since 2014, Jason has been involved in numerous initiatives related to the transformation of Ontario’s employment and training & education sectors - with particular emphasis on reconfiguring labour market information collection, analysis, dissemination, and usage. Jason lives in Buckhorn, Ontario with his two favourite people, Betty and Casey

Liz Stone, Niimin Mshiikehn Kwe, Mshiikehn Dodem, Aamjiwnaang nDoonjibaa miinwaa Nogojiwanong megwaa dodaa.

Indigenous Knowledge leader and Acting Academic Chair, Indigenous Perspectives at Fleming College, currently serving 4th term on the Indigenous Women Circle - Women and Gender Equality Canada.

Previous Associate Professor, Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria. Liz is honoured to be a member of Colleges and Institutes Canada, National Planning Committee for Campus Green Buildings and Indigenous Land Management Approaches & moderator for the Global Affinity Group – Sustainability Development Goals and Intersections with Indigenous Knowledge. Her most important accomplishment & responsibility has been that as a mother to her son, Mkons Stone-Debassige.

Austin Hracs is a seasoned analyst, author, and dealmaker. He is the Senior Vice President of Research and Partnerships at Vicinity Jobs. His mandate is to serve Vicinity’s partners as they continue to find new insight and value from their Vicinity data. He spearheads new research projects and collaborations with partners across Canada.

Austin’s entire professional life has focused on understanding and improving Canada’s labour market. Prior to joining Vicinity Jobs, he was the Director of Research and Implementation at Magnet (a division of Toronto Metropolitan University). There he led Magnet’s Training, Research and Insight, Industry Engagement and Employment Teams to support users and partners across Canada. These included job seekers, employers, employment support organizations, educators, and each level of government.

Before Magnet, Austin was a Senior Consultant with MDB Insight (acquired by Deloitte Canada), Canada’s largest economic development consultancy. In this role Austin contributed extensive research, data analysis and strategy advice to projects in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Newfoundland. Most notably, Austin was the lead author for a series of regional and community labour market strategies and research studies.

Austin completed his Master’s degree in Economic Geography at Queen’s University. His work focused on understanding the causal factors associated with attraction and retention of talent to smaller urban centres.

Austin has an Honours Degree in both Political Science and Geography from Brock University.

Austin was born and raised in the City of Richmond Hill, Ontario. He lives in Toronto with his lovely wife Natalie.

Strac Ivanov is the President and Founder of Vicinity Jobs. He is a technology entrepreneur and labour market research innovator. For more than 20 years, he has been building and deploying AI-based natural language processing algorithms to solve real world problems. Strac remains the chief technology architect guiding the evolution of Vicinity Jobs’ leading edge data collection and analytics technologies.
Strac is a recognized expert in the field of Canadian Labour Market Information (LMI), and has been a guest speaker at various Canadian Workforce and Economic Development forums, including the annual Economic Developers Alberta conference, annual BC Economic Developers Association conference, the CACEE West Fall Professional Development conference, and annual CANNEXUS conference.

Strac is an accomplished business leader and a veteran of the online and big data analytics services industry. Beyond Vicinity Jobs, he has led numerous enterprise software, data warehouse, and e-commerce implementation projects, involving integration between various enterprise systems and the implementation and deployment of various Application Programming Interfaces (also called APIs, used to integrate and synchronize data and processes between independent software systems).

Strac holds a Master`s degree in Business Administration from Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (in Vienna, Austria). He wrote his Master’s thesis on the topic of using AI-based Natural Language Processing algorithms to collect and classify unstructured information from online sources. He is also a PMI-certified Project Management Professional. Strac lives in Vancouver with his wife and two children.