Diversifying PDI Funding Pool

# Diversifying PDI Funding Pool ###### tags: `Work` `PDI` `Strategy` ## Context The first year of PDI is presently in full swing. We have wrapped up the Discovery and Planning phases of our engagements at CCIS and WoodGreen, who constitute the Spring (first) cohort of engagements. To this point, our focus has been inward, on the work and our team's capacity to execute it at a high level. As, in this moment, our focus turns outward, toward the learnings and messages we want to communicate, it naturally turns forward, to the future of PDI and Strategic Data work more generally at Blueprint. This note explores potential funding opportunities for Blueprint to expand and intensify its Strategic Data work in the Canadian Skills development ecosystem. In parallel, we are also formulating a proposal for the second phase of PDI, which we anticipate will be negotiated and funded fully by FSC. That proposal will consider the findings developed here, and tailor the scope and emphasis of PDI 2.0 to maximize our potential for sustainable impact. ## [Skills Development Fund (SDF)](https://www.ontario.ca/page/skills-development-fund) ### Background SDF is a flexible funding envelope that aims to support **Innovative projects** that **address challenges** experienced by **businesses, workers, jobseekers, and communities** across Ontario as they collectively recover from the impacts of the **COVID-19 pandemic**. These projects, according to the SDF, should yield **innovative, market driven solutions** that can **help people and businesses make it through the pandemic successfully**, with bonus points awarded to projects that could positively impact Ontario's training and employment services ecosystem. Almost any class of organization that has a physical presence in Ontario can apply for SDF funding. The only classes of organizations excluded from eligibility are the federal government, post secondary institutions (can be involved as coapplicants, but not principal applicants). Project requirements are similarly so-vague-that-it-must-be-on-purpose, permitting projects that help virtually anyone do virtually anything related to the labour market, so long as it is reasonable and virtuous. In 2021, they provided $83MM to 146 successful proponents, an average of roughly $570k. I have looked for but not found disclosures of how the money was distributed across different sectors or classes of organizations, nor what kinds of projects were most likely to be selected. If I stumble across some, I will take a quick look at them and update this note with my findings. The SDF may not persist beyond 2022-23, so if we decide to pursue funding by applying to it, we will not have the luxury of seeing through an FSC funded second round of PDI engagements etc. ### Project Requirements #### Level 0: The Text :::info `From the Source`^[Numbered for convenience, item numbers will not track for GO comms] Applications must show how the funding will support one or more of the following focus areas: 1. Support the skills and talent needs of economic sectors or employers that have been impacted by the pandemic. 2. Better align education, training and skills development with the needs of employers and the local labour market 3. Test local solutions that better support labour market needs in communities that have been hit hard by the pandemic or are at risk of facing a disproportionate impact. 4. Better support the employment of women, youth, persons with disabilities, racialized groups, Indigenous peoples and other groups that are traditionally underrepresented in some sectors. 5. Improve the quality of skills training, strengthen provision of worker and job seeker supports, or the capacity to deliver training safely and effectively during a pandemic. 6. Create solutions that take job seekers and workers at risk of layoff to jobs in sectors with high growth prospects or a high demand for workers, like advanced manufacturing or health care professions like personal support workers. 7. Increase access to Ontario’s apprenticeship system by encouraging greater employer participation and improving supports for apprentices on-the-job, and in-class through the provision of wrap-around supports, up-to-date training equipment and increased capacity. 8. Increase apprentice registrations, training progression and training completion by improving the apprentice experience either on-the-job or during in-class training. 9. Give job seekers, laid-off workers or those at risk of layoff immediate access to employment, training supports, job placements or work experience. 10. Improve the recruitment and career advancement chances for workers with the right essential, technical and employability skills. ::: #### Level 1: What I'm Seeing - Emphasizing the open-ended nature of the RFP, the above box reflects the text of the Project Requirements section verbatim and in full. - Conspicuous mention of apprentices continues here, as we see two suggested focus areas centered on making Ontario's apprenticeship system more appealing and rewarding to engage with for apprentices (8) and employers (7). - Supporting communities (3) and sectors (1) that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic are also highlighted in multiple focus areas. I would venture that these sectors and communities have been identified, and are implied by the distribution of COVID recovery efforts reflected in the 2021 ON budget. - Several of the focus areas pertain specifically to the skills training and jobseeker / worker support ecosystem. They want the skills training system to act faster (9), connect users to more promising careers (6), deliver training more safely (5), and add more value for employers (1, 2). - Building capacity at training providers is mentioned as an eligible focus area several times, though the emphasis seems to be on capital investments that will enable providers to deliver training with lower risk of COVID-19 (5) or -- for apprentices -- with better equipment (7). - The option to focus on providing supports that address labour market inequities (4) experienced by women, BIPOC, and other HDES groups is promising, though given the current GO's political alignments, I am skeptical about the strength of the underpinning commitment. - Depending on your reading, focus area 10 could mean a whole lot, but here's my read of it. First, that there is an untapped reservoir of appropriately skilled workers, and the market has failed to employ them. Second, that, as Ontario recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, the population of jobseekers could be different. More of them will bring job-ready skills and experience, which we expect to come with higher expectations. #### Level 2: What I'm Thinking - There is definitely room for PDI-style work within these focus areas. Without adapting our objectives, approach, and framing, the PDI is justifiable on the grounds that it supports service excellence, responsiveness to user and market needs, and decentralized innovation. - I'm guessing that, if the project is targeted at a specific community, focal area 3 actually means that there is a preference for communities outside of the GTHA, GKWA, Ottawa, Kingston. I don't see this as a specific constraint, but if we can think of a reasonable way to ensure at least some rural / remote investment, it would benefit our chances. - We should consider how the PDI's scope can be extended to include support for tech investments outside of data infrastructure and capacity. One could imagine stretching the PDI's focus to support with planning and execution around new systems that align more directly with the COVID-safety and training delivery priorities emphasized in the project requirements. - From what I understand, Ontario's apprenticeship system sucks to be a part of for a bunch of reasons as both a worker and an employer. PDI isn't really the toolkit here, but we should consider whether we want to wade back into the apprenticeship space. ### Err... [Application](https://www.forms.ssb.gov.on.ca/mbs/ssb/forms/ssbforms.nsf/FormDetail?OpenForm&ACT=RDR&TAB=PROFILE&SRCH=&ENV=WWE&TIT=ON00317&NO=ON00317E) Confusion? The application is 100% all good until you get to section 4.3, wherein the delivery-focused KPI reporting requirements imply a less flexible scope. ### [Budget 2021](https://budget.ontario.ca/2021/chapter-1b.html#c1-12) Context The text of the 2021 Budget that summarizes the SDF offers some interesting context. >More than 500 applications were received for the Skills Development Fund in the first month after it was launched in February 2021. Proposed employment and training projects to help workers find good jobs were submitted by trade unions, colleges, community organizations, employers, training delivery agents and others across the province. Eligible projects could include a digital career fair that allows employers to connect with job seekers impacted by COVID‑19; mentorship programs and career counselling for apprentices while they are training on-the-job; the creation of training materials that teach employers how to accommodate employees who have disabilities; and making workspaces and equipment more accessible. The funded projects will be available for workers starting in spring and summer 2021. - None of the examples of SDF projects align very well with the PDI, but I don't think that's a death-knell to our prospects. Rather, I think it's just as likely that the need for this specific type of initiative hasn't occurred to them. - Curiously, it looks like there are separate envelops in the 2021 budget that address some of the focus areas described in the project requirements section of the SDF summary: - 117MM to support HDES Ontarians through training and employment (4) - 157MM to support workers struggling in or displaced from hard-hit sectors (specific shout-out to hospitality and tourism)(1) - 60MM to improve digital infrastructure (e.g. internet) for community orgs, training providers, colleges (5) - 194MM for 'additional employment and training programs' - The SDF uniquely emphasizes innovation in the apprenticeship system, increasing the value of the training system to employers, reducing friction and delay between lay-offs and training / support, and helping 'local (read rural, remote) communities'. - As part of its micro-credentialing strategy, GO is piloting a 'Virtual Skills Passport', which would allow learners to track their credentials and show them to employers through the internet. ### Closing Thoughts SDF is a substantial pool of funding without a clear plan for spending it. It's a solution in search of some problems. The GO's primary outcome of interest is the money being spent quickly on reasonable and innovative-sounding endeavours in the training space. Enter the PDI, a disruptive but considered vehicle for investing in the ecosystem. In this context, it's good that the PDI is different than GO's traditional funding approach, that it empowers providers to be more innovative and agile, and that it takes a flexible, spendy approach to capacity building. PDI aligns in principle with the priorities of the SDF. We hope that the absence of a PDI-like project from GO comms around SDF signals not opposition to the idea, but rather a conceptual space in the SDF portfolio for something in this vein. Parallel envelopes aimed at modernizing the rails of the skills training system signals that the PDI aligns with the broader objectives of GO. If SDF were scheduled to persist into 2023-24, I would not hesitate to apply with the PDI. If SDF's time horizon could be limited to 22-23, it would demand that we scale our ambitions and capacity more aggressively than we had initially planned. The interaction between the SDF PDI 2.0 and FSC PDI 2.0 would also have to be considered. Are there natural divisions between our PDI 2.0 plans that would partition the work conveniently between SDF and FSC? Do we have the collective time and energy to grow our team anabolically? I'm not sure, but I'm excited to discuss.