An ICTC Study
Settling for More
Matching Newcomers to Alberta’s Tech Sector
Published by ICTC, November 2021
Alberta’s digital economy is growing and thus faces potential labour shortages in the near future. At the same time, internationally educated newcomers to Alberta often face challenges finding employment for which they are qualified. This report investigates how best to enhance newcomer participation in Alberta’s digital economy. Its findings draw upon a literature review, interviews with Alberta employers, focus groups with newcomers, and data on the skills newcomers bring to Canada. The report first covers labour demand among Alberta’s digital economy employers, and compares this to the supply of available talent among newcomers. Key findings are that soft skills are in high demand and that newcomers are often overeducated and underemployed. The report then covers six challenges to newcomer participation in Alberta’s digital economy that are unrelated to skills mismatches and provides potential solutions to each.
Researched and written by Tyler Farmer (Manager, Special Projects & Marketing Strategy), Khiran O’Neill (Research & Policy Analyst), and Mansharn Toor (Research & Policy Analyst), with generous support from Tracy Martell (Program Coordinator), Maya Watson (Research & Policy Analyst), Bingjie Xiao (Data Scientist), Alexandra Cutean (Chief Research Officer), and the Digital Think Tank by ICTC team.
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