Margo Purcell 
Margo's thoughts here were originally published in the Calgary Herald on December 31, 2025.
Canada, the game as we knew it has changed. Our long-standing partnerships and alliances have shifted, and the rules-based order and economy are in question, leaving behind the predictability they once provided
Are we really ready to respond?
Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke at a luncheon hosted by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce last month. His government firmly believes that investing in significant infrastructure projects will be the key to unlocking Canada’s “new” economy.
He framed them as economic opportunities to be captured by focusing on the “hard sciences” — energy, mining, technology and artificial intelligence. He even joked that his finance degree was no longer of any use.
What struck me is the “either/or” dichotomy that is often presented when we discuss the skills and competencies needed to fuel economic growth.
Hidden in this rhetoric is a mental model of either/or. We focus on either hard sciences/skills or social sciences/“soft skills.” Isn’t it time we realize you can’t have one without the other? Isn’t it time we start investing in the Canadian workforce — the people, the teams, the companies who will turn big ideas into action?
We are so driven to understand how we unlock innovative capacity in this country that we commissioned a study. In fact, we looked at three countries: Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.
The numbers don’t lie. Of the 3,000 people surveyed, 81 per cent of workers completed training in the past year, but only 32 per cent said it helped them do their actual job. Even more surprising, 59 per cent said they’ve left or are considering leaving their jobs in the past 12 months due to gaps in workplace training.
This doesn’t bode well for a strong Canada, one that Carney has challenged to “build big, build fast, build bold again.”
According to our study, what is the No. 1 skill the workforce is asking for? The skill they said was required to be successful and to keep them in their role? Collaboration, a meta skill.
Meta skills are not “soft” or “hard”; instead, they are integrative. They eliminate the distinction completely. They are the vital skills you expected to learn in school and didn’t.
Meta skills — cognitive skills such as critical thinking, collaboration and systems thinking —- are not a nice-to-have; they are an innovation engine that drives the economic engine. These skills contribute to the success of any project at any time and in any discipline. These are the skills that will make us, our companies and our country continuously valuable, so that we realize the value we generate here in Canada.
We need to equip Canadians with meta skills that can’t be automated, mechanized, outsourced or made obsolete.
To build a strong Canada, we need to start investing in our workforce. The most recent data, adjusted for inflation, shows $240/employee per year is the average spent on employer-sponsored training. That is some of the lowest spending in all of the OECD countries.
Employee turnover costs between 50 per cent and 200 per cent of an employee’s salary, depending on the company or industry — never mind the brain drain that happens when we lose top talent to other countries.
Isn’t it time we shift the critical conversation about our economy from the usual big projects to game-changing ventures built by an ultracompetent workforce?
Yes, prime minister, we need the hard sciences and we need the soft sciences. More importantly, we need something different altogether — a workforce armed with meta skills to turn this economic crisis into opportunities.
When we equip our workforce with meta skills, it puts Canada in a position to play a different game where our potential is unlimited.
Interested to learn the insights from our commissioned study? Download the full InceptionU Innovative Talent Report to see the data. Identify where your organization stands and discover tailored strategies to build a more capable, adaptable, and innovative workforce.
