It is with great pride and excitement that The Knowledge Management Institute of Canada is announcing, in collaboration with the Lassonde School of Engineering and York University, and a number of Canada’s leading organizations that we are to take a lead role in the recently awarded the Skills Catalyst Grant from the Ontario Government, “Building Workforce Innovation Capability in Ontario”.

There is a growing recognition that if we want to increase Canada’s capacity for and investment into Innovation, we need to align the worlds of Work and Education. This means re-thinking how we work and learn in the context of the knowledge economy - a period defined by massive technology disruption and exponential change.

According to Blake Melnick, KMIC’s CEO/CKO & Lead Workplace Partner for the initiative:

“We need to explore innovation at a deeper level – What are the skills, knowledge and most important, the mindsets required to advance knowledge both in schools and in the workplace to create and sustain cultures of innovation and excellence? We need to begin to treat the classroom as the workplace so that students are engaged in solving complex challenges faced by their counterparts in the work force, while they are learning in the classroom, so by the time they graduate they are not only innovation capable, but they also have real work experience under their belts.”