Province Looks To Bridge Disconnect Between Trades Training and Real World
Industrial Mechanics Instructor, Reinhardt Wildauer, shows Premier Christy Clark one of the metal lathes in the millwright machinists’ shop at CNC’s Technical Education Centre
Prince George, BC – Surrounded by trades students and instructors at CNC’s Technical Education Centre, Premier Christy Clark has announced $17-million dollars in funding to replace outdated equipment in post-secondary trades training programs. (click photo for video clip)
Clark says the funding looks to bridge a growing technology gap between post-secondary institutes and the real world. "We want those young people here training on equipment that’s going to be as close as possible to the equipment that they’re going to be using in the workforce," she says. "Because we don’t want them to have to spend another couple of years learning again all the things we were supposed to have been teaching them – that the taxpayers have paid to teach them – when they were in a post-secondary institution."
Minister of Jobs, Tourism, and Skills Training, Pat Bell, says this was a key issue identified in a working session involving business leaders, the city, and college officials in Prince George a few months ago. He says today’s announcement offers assurances to both students and prospective employers that apprentices will be trained on current equipment.
Prince George Construction Association President, Roz Thorn, says, "Having sat on this college board for six years, I know what a struggle it is to keep on the leading edge when dollars are in short supply and we have to maximize their use." Thorn points out industry has done an admirable job of stepping in to fill some of the gaps in infrastructure.
"With billions of dollars in projects on the books for Northern British Columbia," she says, "These funds to upgrade equipment will be well-placed to round out the training that we offer."
The Premier says at least $5-million of the $17-million dollars will be spent in the North, and "a big part of that will belong to CNC."
College President, John Bowman, hails the funding as a "much-needed, critical investment in infrastructure". He points out that the venue for today’s announcement – the millwright machinists’ shop in the Technical Education Centre – stands to benefit the most, pointing to one piece of equipment dating from 1961. "Oftentimes, it may be necessary for students to re-learn on the equipment they’re finding in their industry, so that’s something that this announcement and investment will help us correct."
With skilled trades training completion rates lower in BC than other parts of the country, Premier Clark says that’s something the provincial government continues to work on, with further announcements in the coming months.
"We’ve doubled the number of apprentices in British Columbia (since 2004)," she says. "Now we have to make sure we’re paying attention to the graduation rate and part of that is listening to industry because industry has some ideas about how we can fix that."
Comments
It is nice to get new equipment which may actually be more advanced than that which is available in many of the places which they will get jobs at.
And then there are the actual differences amongst the various models.
Anyway, I believe about 20% of the training is at College and the rest is in industry. It is my understanding that Alberta has the jobs and thus apprentices will be through much more quickly and are less likely to quit after the first year out of frustration of not getting a job.
This recent article in the Tyee explains it nicely.
http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/07/03/BC-Trades-Training
The system works well i many European countries as well as places like China where the student is endentured to a company for the entire time. In fact, the “training” is shared about 50/50 between vocation school and company. In addition, students are also taught subjects beyond those absolutely necessary for the trade and deal with general knowledge that an adult needs to succeed in every day life.
There is far more wrong with our system than what a few million to upgrade tools will fix. Remember, the companies where 80% of the training is supposed to take place have those ….. yeah right!
have to agree Gus much more needs to be done and ITA part of the problem has no wheels or direction with funding for support service cut to almost zero.
Yes the Training is free and they even pay you a small amount every Month and increases every Year , at the End you get your TQ and you can work anywhere . We have a long way to go and the nicest thing is ,No Student Loans”.
It’s funny how money just shows up for this and that when an election is abound…..
But the Province is broke.
Spreading crumbs for us votes.
Why is Clark never clear when it comes to numbers?
She mentions about doubling the apprentiships since 2004.. But does that mean in 2004 we had 100 and in the last 8 years we have a total of 200? Or does it mean in 2004 we had 100 and this year there is 200, how many where there in 2003,05,06,07,etc.
Why don’t we get concrete examples rather than this word smithing of nothing ?
PHOTO OP ALERT !!!
I don’t see heroner Ms. Green in the pics, was she not invited?
The main “disconnect” here is the provincial government, period. Let’s not forget that the B.C. Liberals are the ones who dismantled the existing apprenticeship system in the first place, and had nothing ready to replace it. This vote buying oops I mean funding is welcome and may even be useful, if it actually happens. 17 million also has to be shared amoungst all the training institutions in the province, I assume. I mean its nice and all, but what will that sum amount to, per college?
I remain unconvinced.
“There is far more wrong with our system than what a few million to upgrade tools will fix.” RIGHT ON GUS.
metalman.
yup. Stop hiring temporary foreign j-men and start apprenticing local youth. All the fancy equipment at CNC won’t help unless employers stop pressing the Easy Button, then whining about a skills shortage – takes at least 4 years to apprentice a youth, many more to get proper experience. If everybody smartened up tomorrow, we’d still be 10 years away from getting out of the mess they made.
There is no skills shortage, just a common sense shortage. HR is the worst employment disaster in Canadian history. Having some university schlepp with a PHD in basket-weaving who wouldn’t know a good hire if they walked in and punched them in the face trying to fill technical positions is a joke. Like the baffoon on CBC this spring trying to tell kids to get volunteer experience to get hired in Ft. Mac made me laugh till I cried. Like collecting Unicef pennies means a damn to a foreman who needs 12 welders yesterday. lol.
The kids in high school can take their pre-apprentice at CNC while going to high school and then finishing grade 12. It’s a great program but it’s hard to find employers where they can get their hours. They are still only Grade 11 so they need to find local summer employment to get 200 appreticeship hours…that’s the hard part.
After they graduate they can go to work full time but again it’s hard to find jobs cause everyone will only take 3rd and 4th year apprentices.
The parents and High school counselors need to steer and encourage some of the kids toward the trades as well. Many of them don’t have any idea what they want to do when they grow up.
metalman.
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