We Know Training · Briefing for the National Job Bank and Training Finder
WE KNOW TRAINING INC. · FEDERAL WORKFORCE BRIEFING
Prepared for the National Job Bank and Training Finder team · Employment and Social Development Canada · September 2026

Finding training was never the hard part.

Knowing which training you need and that you are ready to work is. And proving what you earned anywhere. We built an instrument for each — two examples of the innovation the current criteria keep outside.

We Know Training Inc.
EDMONTON, ALBERTA
SEPTEMBER 2026

RE: THE NATIONAL TRAINING FINDER, READINESS MEASUREMENT AND VERIFIABLE COMPLETION

Dear Mr. Côté,

Thank you for making the time. This follows the Minister’s letter of 14 July to the Council of Canadian Innovators, in which she asked officials responsible for the Training Finder to be in touch. We are one of the CCI member companies behind that correspondence.

We are We Know Training Inc., a Canadian company based in Edmonton, Alberta. We operate the infrastructure that delivers regulated training and issues roughly 450,000 credentials a year across hundreds of branded storefronts running under various institutional partners — under a SOC 2 Type II certified operation. The majority of the training delivered through our technology is training an authority has made mandatory before a person can legally work: i.e. working at heights for construction workers, life insurance licensing for financial advisors, cannabis retail worker training for budtenders, real estate licensing for realtors, etc.

The Training Finder exists to connect a Canadian to the training a specific job requires. Restricting the platform to free programmes and post-secondary providers leaves out access to categories of training providers that are creating some of the most innovative solutions that can help address many of the objectives the Training Finder seeks to solve.

We are not asking for an open door. A directory anyone can list in would cost the Training Finder more trust than it gained reach. At minimum we recommend that a provider should be eligible when a body with real authority has already recognised the credential they issue — a regulator, a certifying body, an accrediting association. Not because they are private, and not because they asked.

We’ve also built two unique instruments of innovation that are currently in production today and that we feel strongly can help address workforce skill gaps and labour mobility challenges.

ReadyEngine™ measures whether a learner is actually ready to pass a certifying exam or be ready to work against a published standard — continuously, while they learn, instead of once at the end. It takes a published exam blueprint and turns it into a live measure of how ready a person is right now, and precisely what is missing. In a regulator-accredited licensing programme it moved the pass rate from 81 to 96 per cent within two permitted attempts, and cut time to complete by 48 per cent. It has crossed four regulated domains without a change to the algorithm. Those results come from Alberta real-estate licensing. The mapping and expansion is underway for the trades next, and then other priority skill shortage sectors afterwards.

The connection to your platform is direct. A worker arriving at the Training Finder has to already know what to search for. That is a real constraint on a discovery tool, and it is the constraint workers name themselves: when Ipsos surveyed 511 Alberta tradespeople for the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum this year, an online resource to compare their skills against what a Red Seal trade requires was the highest-rated support tested, at 77 per cent.

Oliu® and the Canadian Credential Trust Alliance (CCTA) answer what happens after training. A pan-Canadian trust network that lets a certificate prove itself outside the province that issued it. Through Oliu and the Canadian Credential Trust Alliance, a completion is issued as a tamper-evident credential the worker holds on their own device and any employer can verify in seconds, on the W3C Verifiable Credentials standard. The issuing body remains the authority and keeps the power to revoke.

We are not asking for money, a procurement, or preferential listing. We are making a narrower point: the platform’s own purpose is better served by a floor that lets accredited innovators in than by a category that keeps them out. We would also like your read on where these two instruments are genuinely useful to the Training Finder and ESDC, and how we can further bring this type of innovation to Canadians.

The Minister’s letter invited ideas. If a written submission would be useful, let’s discuss and we’re happy to provide further details.

Signature, Chris LaBossiere
Chris LaBossiere
CEO & OWNER · WE KNOW TRAINING INC.
EDMONTON, ALBERTA
We Know Training
Recommendations for the Training Finder

Five recommendations, starting with a concession.

The Minister’s reply invited ideas. These are ours. The first one is a concession, and the aim throughout is a floor that lets accredited innovation in rather than a category that keeps it out.

01
Eligibility by recognition, not by provider category
The Training Finder already gates on recognition — it just recognises one category of recogniser. A college is eligible because provincial legislation recognises it as a post-secondary institution. That is a recognition test, not a quality test; nobody at Job Bank assesses the course. The same logic extends: CannSell is approved by the AGCO, Responsible Service BC is the LCRB’s mandatory certification, hunter education runs under Alberta’s authority. In each case an authority has already made the call. The test we would propose: the credential is mandated, approved, accredited or formally recognised by a regulator, certifying body or government programme — and the provider can name which one.
02
Use a governed trust registry as the maintained floor
Writing an eligibility rule is the easy half; maintaining it is the half that kills these projects. Who confirms next year that a provider still qualifies? Who notices when an accreditation lapses? A criteria document cannot answer that. A registry can. The Canadian Credential Trust Alliance is being built to hold exactly this — a trust registry of which bodies are accredited to issue what. It is governed by credentialing bodies on a one-member-one-vote basis rather than by any operator; the registry and the signing keys sit with an independent not-for-profit; it is machine-readable, so the Training Finder could query it rather than maintain a list; and it is self-correcting, so listing status can follow accreditation status automatically.
03
Show the recognition rather than hiding it
A worker looking at two courses cannot tell what stands behind either. The Finder could display the basis of recognition on each listing — approved by the AGCO, provincially designated institution, meets a federal standard. More useful than a binary, and it lets the platform widen its catalogue while being more transparent about provenance than it is today, not less.
04
Make verifiable completion an advantage, not a requirement
A provider able to issue completion as a tamper-evident credential offers the platform something it has from nobody today: evidence that a listing produced an outcome. It should not be a condition of entry — that would advantage us unfairly and slow adoption. Make it a distinguishing signal and let it spread because it is worth having.
05
Build the exit at the same time as the entrance
Accreditations lapse. Providers fail, get bought, or drift. Listing status should follow accreditation status automatically, and the rule for removal should be written the same week as the rule for admission.
Side by side

Where this work meets the federal mandate.

Drawn from Job Bank’s own published mandate and from federal workforce direction.

Federal direction · JOB BANK’S OWN MISSION
“We believe that informed career choices lead to better employment outcomes”, and a commitment to “empower Canadians in the labour market through quality information.”
Where we help
An informed choice about training requires knowing what you are missing. That is the one piece of quality information the platform does not yet hold about a worker. ReadyEngine produces it — a calibrated read of what a person has mastered and what they have not, against a published standard.
Federal direction · THE TRAINING FINDER
“Short-term training courses from recognized institutions across Canada”, currently “a prototype in development.”
Where we help
Recognition is already the gate; the open question is which recognisers count. A credential mandated by the AGCO, the LCRB or a federal standard has been recognised by an authority too. Criteria are far easier to widen while the platform is still a prototype than after it has set.
Federal direction · TEAM CANADA STRONG
80,000–100,000 new Red Seal workers; modernisation toward digital logbooks, online examinations and secure credentials.
Where we help
ReadyEngine is the measurement layer before the examination. Oliu is the portable proof layer after the authorised body certifies. Discovery, measurement and proof are three steps of one journey, and Job Bank owns the first.
Federal direction · ONE CANADIAN ECONOMY
Less duplication, better labour mobility.
Where we help
ReadyEngine reduces unnecessary retraining by identifying the actual gap rather than restarting a programme. Oliu removes repeated manual verification by letting an authentic credential prove itself across provincial lines.
Find the gap
Train what is missing
Prove readiness
Certify
Carry trusted proof
Team Canada Strong · Implementation is underway
$880 million for paid youth trades placements.
A one-time $5,000 Red Seal completion bonus.
Up to $10,000 for employers hiring eligible first-year apprentices.
A $400 weekly training grant, up to $16,000 per apprentice.
Negotiations to flow a further $2 billion through provincial and territorial training agreements.

The programs create entry, support and capacity. ReadyEngine can add a common certification-readiness signal across the journey.

Additional resources

Additional resources

Next in this briefing · 02 ReadyEngine
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