More Than 30 Jobs On The Cutting Block At NWCC
Friday, February 10, 2012 @ 4:00 AM
Terrace, B.C. – Northwest Community College says it will have to cut over 30 jobs to balance a budget dripping with red ink.
The college, with campuses across the northwest and Haida Gwaii, says it will need to reduce a total of 31.49 positions as it tries to eliminate a deficit estimated at between $1.6 and $2 million. NWCC says the cuts will come from management, faculty, and staff but has not detailed how it came up with the number or how they will be spread out across employee groups.
NWCC says it has 673 employees which account for 276.28 full-time equivalents. The college says consultation committees made up of union leadership and administration will meet over the next two weeks to consider alternatives to individual layoffs and explore possible options.
The BC Labour Relations Board is expected to meet to hear a request from the union representing some faculty at the college that the layoff plan be scrapped. Federation of Post Secondary Educators President Cindy Oliver says the college has not provided a detailed accounting of the deficit or revenues.
CNC and Northern Lights Community College are also facing budget deficits, but Premier Christy Clark Wednesday stopped short of offering financial help.
“I know that Northwest Community College has been running a deficit, so the Ministry of Advanced Ed has given them approval to run the deficit this year so they can get back to a balanced budget situation. But the thing is, you know, we are going to make sure that in the long term we are providing the education that citizens need to be able to participate fully in the growing economy. Because here’s one of the problems that we have, and lots of people who will have gone out and gotten a degree or certificate will be familiar with this situation. You go out and get a degree or a certificate and there’s no job for you at the end of the pipe.”
Clark says the province’s education system is training people for jobs that don’t exists while the jobs that are out there are desperate for workers that aren’t being trained.
She says the education system needs to be more aligned with the needs of the economy, although she did not specify what that would mean over the long-term.
Comments
“Clark says the provinceâs education system is training people for jobs that donât exist while the jobs that are out there are desperate for workers that arenât being trained.”
I’m a perfect example of this. Two years ago I started taking courses at BCIT. I chose my Certificate of study based on my abilities, interests, positive Employment Outcome Indicators, wages for the job, and the number of postings I would see on job boards.
I’m currently finishing my final course for the Certificate and the jobs have dried up, and the wages have tanked about 1/3 of what they were when I started down this path.
Finally Casey Clark said something that made sense. I have always wondered why these colleges pump out Business Admins one after another when the best most of them can hope for is a $10/$12 hr job as a secretary, or should I say, assistant.
“But the thing is, you know, we are going to make sure that in the long term we are providing the education that citizens need to be able to participate fully in the growing economy.”
If that is what the government wants to do, then the government had better start giving crystal ball gazing courses, and take some itself to start with.
For instance, if I would have believed government that they were going to build a Wood Innovation Centre right here in my home town, and I had the financial and mental capacity to enter a post grad industrial design program such as a few universities in Canada have, I would be sitting here with my advanced, specialized degree waiting …. and waiting .. and waiting ….. and finally moving out of town to where the real rather than actual jobs are.
Just a few years ago Northwest Community College shut down their welding program or reduced it considerably because graduates were going to the oil fields rather than staying in the Northwest.
It is such attitudes that have proliferated the mindset of reactive rather than proactive and integrated training programs.
Why is that mindset there? Because of the control by Victoria of waht gets delivered.
So, please to those in government, do something about it rather than blaming colleges. It is your provincial post secondary education system. You have expanded it considerably, which is very good, thank you. But it is you who have the ultimate responsibility of determining your action plan for jobs, who will play what role, and giving those who are part of that integrated system the tools they require to address those needs.
These people are educated, but they are not soothsayers.
“where the real rather than actual jobs are.”
Guess I meant to write “the real rather than imagined jobs”
:-(
“You go out and get a degree or a certificate and thereâs no job for you at the end of the pipe.”
The pace of the world is changing. There are almost no lifetime jobs left. The first course of ANY education and even training ought to be to develop an awareness of that fact. The results of that awareness needs to be brought home thorughout any specialized training, especially training that take considerable time.
By that I mean that with every skill developed, one must be able to see which jobs that skill could be applied to.
The key is not only specific job knowledge an skills, but also a flexible mindset which has an awareness of the world around and the applicability of the gained knowledge and skill sets to jobs other than the current one.
Complacency is an unacceptable attitude of a graduate.
No mention of UNBC who have been overfunded for the past 5 years, and who are also facing a budget crunch.
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