🎓 Healthcare Leads Remote Workforce. Fertility Peaks in West Africa. Half of Canadian Firms Plan To Invest in AI.

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AI startup procure AI scores with $13M to revolutionize business procurement. Victoria launches initiative to upskill the women’s health workforce. Virginia Tech develops robotic multi-directional 3D printing for stronger composite materials. Chandigarh hosts 1st renewable energy job fair, opens career pathways.

2U and IBM launched six new technical micro-credentials on edX, including programs for data science, AI, and software engineering, aiming to provide flexible, job-aligned training and IBM certification upon completion. Goodwill and Google launched a program offering free AI Essentials training across North America, aiming to equip 200K individuals with foundational AI skills while providing practical generative AI experience, culminating in a Google certificate. CodeSignal and Amazon Web Services launched a free generative AI training program to upskill over 30,000 global students and other learners, including prompt engineering and enterprise AI, using AWS tools.

Today's Topics

💼 Workforce. Healthcare accounted for 15% of the US remote workforce
⚕️ Health Skills. Fertility rate peaked in West and Central Africa
🤖 Artificial Intelligence. Over half of Canadian advanced manufacturers plan investments in AI

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💼 Healthcare Accounted for 15% of the US Remote Workforce

Healthcare accounted for the largest share of remote workers in the US in 2024, at 15%. Persistent burnout and staffing shortages across the US healthcare system have driven health systems to adopt remote work as a practical solution to retain experienced nurses and administrative staff while reducing costs. Large healthcare systems are using virtual nursing to split clinical workloads. Policy support, including CMS’s Virtual Direct Supervision rule, further enables remote oversight, highlighting how the US is promoting remote work to address healthcare workforce shortages.

⚕️ Fertility Rate Peaked in West and Central Africa

Total fertility rates in 2024 show sharp regional contrasts, from 1.4 births per woman in East Asia and Pacific to a peak of 4.8 in West and Central Africa. Africa’s higher fertility reflects a combination of limited access to reproductive health services, lower female educational attainment, higher child mortality, and the economic value of larger households in agrarian economies. These factors sustain rapid population growth, intensifying pressure on early childhood education, health systems, and social services. UNICEF’s Early Childhood Development programmes target these structural drivers by expanding maternal health, nutrition, and preschool access.

🤖 Over Half of Canadian Advanced Manufacturers Plan Investments in AI

Over half of Canadian organisations reported investing in or developing artificial intelligence in 2025. AI enables organisations to turn large volumes of data into faster decisions, higher productivity, and new sources of innovation across industries. AI use in Canada has improved industries by automating routine tasks, optimising processes through data analysis, improving accuracy and efficiency, and enabling new products and services that increase competitiveness and productivity. The Pan-Canadian AI strategy is supporting AI research, and industry partnerships continue to accelerate this development.

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