Reducing Recruitment Difficulties in Estrie: Ten Targeted Occupations

Acting on the labour shortage in targeted professions in Estrie

Estrie has been facing a shortage of qualified workers for several years now. With the strength of the job market, many positions are vacant in many professional categories in the region.

Faced with this situation, the education community is mobilizing to help reduce the consequences of recruitment difficulties for businesses in Estrie by focusing on the ten occupations targeted and prioritized by the Conseil régional des partenaires du marché du travail (CRPMT) in December 2019 requiring vocational, technical, or university training.

The professions of the future in Estrie

Discover the five occupations prioritized to reduce recruitment difficulties in Estrie.

This document presents the characteristics of the five priority occupations as well as the training required to practice them, as well as statistics and interesting facts about the occupations of the future in Estrie.

View the infographic (in French)

Some statistics

7,1%

of positions are vacant in Estrie, representing 10,060 unfilled job opportunities.

34,800

positions will have been vacant between 2022 and 2026, of which 24,800 will be due to retirements.

64%

of jobs to be filled in Estrie will be created by retirement.

2023-2024 concertation project action plan

The issues and needs surrounding labour scarcity remain obvious. Thanks to the data collected and the consultation meetings held as part of the 2021-2023 strategic project action plan, R3USSIR and its partners now have a better understanding of the sources, causes, and potential solutions for the targeted professions.

It has been observed and noted that the inter-sectoral and inter-order concerted action plan is useful in responding to and acting to rectify these issues. It therefore seems worthwhile to build on this approach for the remainder of the project, which will enable us to implement appropriate solutions.

As part of this collaborative project, R3USSIR will act as a mediator for sharing, participating in, and supporting local or regional projects, deepening our roots thanks to the expertise and network we have developed.

The 2023-2024 concertation action plan proposes 5 main approaches:

Valorization and promotion of priority professions: develop strategies for enhancing and promoting professions, and co-construct a larger-scale project.
Reception, integration, success, and retention of our international students in our educational institutions and in the Estrie job market.
Offers of training: exchange information on the training offers for priority professions between educational establishments in order to improve offers and increase the relevance and attractiveness of courses.
Regional buy-in: maintain regional buy-in and commitment from partners in implementing strategies related to priority professions in Estrie.
Regional and provincial initiatives for our region: create links and formal ties that keep us connected, and collaborate on regional or provincial initiatives that can help reduce labour shortage issues in priority occupations.

2021-2023 strategic project action plan

In order to identify the causes of recruitment difficulties in Estrie and to undertake actions to reduce the labour shortage in the five priority occupations, here are six major orientations:

Delve into the source of the scarcity by collecting data to understand perceptions at different levels.
Create a regional membership on the issues of the targeted professions in the region.
Improve the training continuum through inter-organization cooperation among educational institutions related to the targeted occupations.
Work in concert with partners in orientation and requalification to make them aware of the shortage issues in the targeted professions.
Promote international recruitment by pooling actions and working together.
Create formal linkages that allow us to remain connected to regional initiatives.

Ten targeted occupations, five prioritized

The CRPMT and Services Québec have mandated R3USSIR to help reduce recruitment difficulties for businesses in the region. The objective of this strategic manpower and employment development project is to reflect and act in a concerted manner on the professions most affected by the labour shortage in Estrie.

Revised and validated in 2021 by the CRPMT, the ten occupations having the most difficulty recruiting in Estrie are: mechanical engineering technologists and technicians, machinists and tooling inspectors, millwrights and industrial mechanics, electromechanics, transport truck drivers, nursing assistants, beneficiary attendants, computer network technicians, and interactive media programmers and developers.

Of these ten occupations, five were prioritized and grouped into two broad categories:

Manufacturing: