How Innovation Can Accelerate Inclusion

Researchers from DI lead workshop on inclusive innovation at 2022 Weavesphere Conference

Accelerating innovation to solve real-world problems was the theme of the 2022 Weavesphere Conference held November 15 to 17 in Toronto at the Metro Convention Centre. 

The event brought together academics, investors, startups, computer scientists and students from around the world to explore how digital technology can be used to solve social and economic issues. Researchers from the Diversity Institute (DI) led a workshop on how innovation can be used to improve inclusion in the information communications and technology (ICT) sector and in Canadian society more broadly.

The ICT sector has long been criticized for being insufficiently diverse and dominated by men in its upper ranks, even as leaders in the ICT sector have been decrying a shortage of skilled workers.

Dr. Magdalena Sabat, director of research and special projects, future skills, at DI, led a workshop exploring issues around inclusion in the sector. She noted that in 2020 only 27% of ICT professionals were women, a number that has improved only slightly over the previous decade. The industry has made strides in recruiting more immigrants, however: just over 38% of ICT professionals were born outside Canada in 2020 compared with 28% in 2010. Nonetheless, Sabat said women are still underrepresented in the sector’s talent pipeline. 

As Sabat noted, these issues of inclusion are important for the wider Canadian economy, given research shows more than 63% of ICT professionals are employed in a sector other than ICT, and digital skills are increasingly important in other jobs. How skills are defined and assessed can influence how inclusive recruitment is, Sabat said. She explained that digital skills are often poorly defined, and STEM (science, engineering, technology and math) or computer science degrees are required for many jobs that don’t necessarily need those skills. Labour market data reveals that many of the most in-demand digital skills are common or relatively easy to learn, like the ability to use spreadsheets or Microsoft Office. 

Furthermore, job postings for ICT workers often require skills like critical thinking, project management, creativity and resilience that are better thought of as foundational skills. Sabat defined jobs that require both digital and foundational skills as hybrid jobs. Recent research shows that hybrid jobs are some of the most in-demand skills in ICT.

Sabat also suggested innovative solutions to help increase diversity in the ICT sector while addressing skills shortages. One example is DI’s ADaPT program, which has trained more than 1,000 students—92% from equity-deserving groups—in digital and professional skills. The program has a 91% satisfaction rate.  

Technology can also be used to improve outcomes for equity-deserving groups, Kevin Jae, a research associate at DI, noted in the workshop. Citing research published by DI, he noted that traditional  government-funded language training for immigrants has had uneven results and long wait times, despite well-meaning attempts at reform. The proportion of immigrants that are unable to communicate effectively in either official language remains high, with only 58% of English learners and 37% of French learners reporting that their language improved enough to obtain employment. Digital language instruction platforms like Duolingo, Babbel and Rosetta Stone have yielded promising results in improving language proficiency. Jae suggested that digital platforms could be used to improve officially funded language instruction and shorten wait times. 

However, Jae noted, technology is not a silver bullet and more should be done to tailor the design of language programs to the needs of specific groups of newcomers. He emphasized that effective and innovative approaches to language learning could lead to greater immigrant inclusion in Canadian society, and highlighted the work that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is doing to explore such approaches. 

Rounding out the workshop, Saifur Rahman, a research assistant at DI, said blockchain technology and decentralization of investment capital could help to remove institutional barriers for entrepreneurs from equity-deserving groups. Blockchain technology and the accompanying revolution in decentralized finance could help diverse entrepreneurs overcome one of their biggest barriers, lack of capital. He pointed to more options being available for financing new businesses, and said blockchain technology can make accessing capital easier by offering tailored and more transparent financial products more quickly. 

Digital technology is not always inclusive, but with the right combination of technological and social innovation, it can be harnessed to make Canada more inclusive.