As an employment centre for newcomers, Ottawa's World Skills has always been steeped in diversity. Their staff come from around the world and they are proud to promote the benefits that immigrants bring to workplaces in their community.

Still, leaders at World Skills were interested in doing more to enhance their team’s knowledge and understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion by examining some of the more complex issues they might face—issues like discrimination and religious accommodation.

That’s what brought World Skills to newpact. In 2024, newpact facilitated a series of workshops designed to help the World Skills staff take their knowledge to the next level, facilitating specialized, interactive experiences focused on deepening the team’s understanding of diversity beyond what’s visible.

The Organization

World Skills is dedicated to helping newcomers kickstart their careers in Canada.

Their no-cost services help immigrants integrate into the local labour market and succeed in Canada. Each year, they serve over 4,000 clients, providing pre-arrival services, individualized needs assessment,  job search workshops, interview and resume coaching, workplace language programs, sector-specific employment support,   job fairs, and networking opportunities with employers.

And they’re doing it all in an increasingly unforgiving job market.

“Right now the labour market is very, very challenging,” says Melissa McGuirk McNeil, former Manager, Human Resources and Volunteer Services at World Skills. “It’s extremely competitive.”

For this reason, World Skills has taken on the role of advocate, making it their business to showcase the power of diversity and the strengths that immigrants bring to Canadian workplaces.

Through targeted recruitment events, corporate mentorship programs, and job fairs, World Skills connects their clients with job opportunities, matching the right skills to the right employers. World Skills has also doubled down on strategic partnerships with employers, providing pre-screening services, upskilling training for their clients and mentorship programs with three major employers in Ottawa. These services not only connect employers to qualified newcomers, creating a pipeline of talent, but they forge powerful, long-lasting relationships and launch meaningful careers.

The Challenge

Diversity is World Skills’ strength. Their 45 employees and more than 100 volunteers come from a vast range of backgrounds.

“The group of staff we have here is very naturally diverse,” says McGuirk McNeil. “Our staff come from all over the world and they speak many, many languages. But when it comes to thinking about how we are serving a diverse group of clients there are many things we have to consider.”

That list includes understanding diversity beyond what’s visible, and ensuring their staff are equipped to tackle more complex topics—issues such as discrimination that require strong foundational knowledge. To strengthen the team’s abilities in this area, World Skills was searching for specialized educational opportunities for their staff.

The Solution

When McGuirk McNeil participated in a newpact workshop through local nonprofit Volunteer Ottawa, she was hopeful that she had found the right solution for World Skills. As a collective, newpact brings a multi-disciplinary approach and a depth of knowledge to their workshops. Plus, the facilitation style is participatory and experiential, promoting meaningful discussion and providing concrete takeaways for participants.

“I’d done a lot of those sessions over the years and I just thought [the facilitator] was so engaging,” she says. “I was really impressed.”

In February 2024, World Skills brought in newpact to conduct a series of workshops on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). The initial workshops—which provided an introduction to the scope and breadth of diversity in society—was well-received by the staff.

Following the sessions, McGuirk McNeil and Mengistab Tsegaye, World Skills’ Executive Director, expressed that they wanted to follow up with another series of workshops centred on more complex subject matter. Specifically, they hoped that newpact could offer specialized training to tackle an issue that isn’t often discussed in the workplace—religion.

Tsegaye explains that it was critical for the team to receive this additional layer of education. He says that while the World Skills staff are known for championing the importance of diversity throughout the city, he felt that it was essential for the team to turn inward and discuss what it would look like to enhance their knowledge and understanding of its less visible forms.

“We often think we don’t need [training] because we are out there talking about the need for diversity, for sensitivity, for an inclusive work environment,” says Tsegaye.

Tsegaye hoped the workshop series would spark meaningful conversations and provide their staff with additional tools, language, and resources to address complex topics such as religion. In response to the request, newpact developed a customized workshop on understanding religious diversity.

The staff’s feedback after the initial session? They were looking for even more depth.

Happy to accommodate the request, the newpact facilitator consulted with several employees and leaders before modifying the workshop accordingly. The new version was not only more in-depth and concrete, but it featured issues and examples relevant to the challenges that World Skills staff face every day.

All staff had the opportunity to attend the updated version of the workshop. Those who attended expressed that the experience helped them to understand the breadth of diversity in a new and meaningful way that they could apply directly to their work.

“. . . the most engaging and safe space for learning about a heavy topic that is super important for any client service organizations,” said one participant following the session. “I learned everything from terminology, how to approach religious diversity, what equity is, and how to improve our organization’s policies and programs in this topic. Amazing facilitator who is super passionate about the topic and well-informed. Super approachable and enthusiastic.”

The Outcome

McGuirk McNeil says she appreciated newpact’s willingness to adapt the training to their needs. She and Tsegaye report they have already seen the impact of their staff’s increased awareness about these complex issues, and it has sparked important discussions internally.

Since the workshops, World Skills has formed a staff committee responsible for gathering feedback on how they can build a more inclusive culture. They plan to continue building on the dialogue and reflection that newpact led with their team.

“It’s about starting the conversation so people feel safe to talk about it,” says Tsegaye. “And I think we have achieved that.”