British Columbians Speaking Up on Addressing Skills Shortage
Prince George, B.C.- Over the past month, the Provincial Government has been asking residents to get in on the discussion of how to make sure B.C. workers have the skills they need to take advantage of the opportunities that are just a few year ahead.
More than 275 comments have been registered on the BC Jobs Plan website alone, while the Facebook and Twitter feeds have also generated a great deal of interest.
The comments not only indicate there are some things the Province is doing right with the trades training system, they also offer suggestions on how things can be done better.
“I’m impressed by the ideas on how we, along with our industry partners, can continue to enhance British Columbia’s skilled workforce” says Pat Bell, the Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training.
Emerging themes are:
* Re-think trades and technical education in elementary and high school –
- Many participants believe teachers have a tendency to push students towards pursuing degrees rather than trades.
- importance of improving school facilities and equipment so students get a modern experience of trades and technical careers with modern tools.
* Doing more to connect industry and schools to give students hands on experience in trades and technical careers
- do more to connect schools and students to economic information and employers,
- build on successes like ACEIT, Project Heavy Duty in the Peace River region or Trades Exploration course at Claremont School on Vancouver Island, and encouraging ‘road shows’ where young people can learn from employers and each other about the opportunities.
* Work with employers to encourage more investments in workplace training, recognizing the pressures businesses face – especially small businesses
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Participants expressed the challenge of being a new apprentice and struggling to find employers prepared to take on less-experienced people. Others spoke from the perspective of small business owners and senior trades people, discussing the challenging tradeoffs between getting the work done, investing in people and retaining them in a highly-competitive marketplace.
* Create paths for people to transition into trades or technical careers, no matter their age or background
- Many participants in their 20s and 30s talked about how they are keen to take advantage of the opportunities in the trades and technical fields, but are challenged to make a change. Others, in their 40s and 50s, also expressed interest.
- Opportunities to create job-share programs, targeted training initiatives, opportunities to challenge formal credential processes and enhanced benefit programs that support people in making career changes were identified as possible ways to deal with this issue.
According to the government, visits to the BC Jobs Plan website total more than 26,000 since Nov. 1, and 1,844 Facebook users chose to connect by liking the BC Jobs Plan Facebook page – a total increase of 50 per cent.
Comments
Why are calculators not allowed in trade entrance exams, but are allowed and are used in math classes around the province? Is this away to weed out BC students that struugle in classroom settings? Teach the math within the trade. Far to many road blocks for older workers.
Learn the math before you get there otherwise you will struggle. That is why programs have pre-requisites and entrance exams to see what you need to upgrade before you get there. Places online like the khan academy can teach you basic math all the way to linear algabra and more! And it’s free!
It’s all about the money! Every trades school in BC could put on more classes if they had more money. Industry knew this was coming and has done very little. How many apprentices are there at Canfor or anywhere else right now! Not as many as there should be.
education should be accessable for all people. post secondary is too expensive.
is it not safe to say that if our society had i higher level of education that our economy would be better? not to mention reduced crime rates and less people on social assistance.
I agree with Boudicca. I say make post secondary education fully funded for everyone who chooses to pursue it. I don’t even care what they study. As they spoke to, the benefits of a highly educated population go far beyond filling job vacancies. To be perfectly honest, I don’t even think the two are related. They certainly overlap in many cases, but I think it short sighted to treat our education system as though it’s primary purpose is to prepare people for the job market. It has a much more significant role than that.
Heck, let’s take it one step further. If our economy is being challenged because we can’t give our people the skills they need to succeed in the job market, then let’s subsidize that at well. I don’t care if it’s the trades or being a lab technician.
Perhaps it’s time to just put up or shut up when it comes to making investments that will help build the country.
Just blew the dust off the old crystal ball; damn if I could not read it as it was all Chinese to me!
It’s simple, the trade need to yell at the government and the board of education and those two jokes (the board of education and the government) need to pull there mutual heads out of there back sides and listen then do.
Too many students in secondary school who wish to enter the workforce need to enter via Wendy’s and McDonalds or some other menial task jobs instead of getting the chance to get an apprenticeship to the trade they want. The board of education is in bed with the colleges and universities, they push unnecessary courses and that have no bearing on the trade the student wants.
To become any form of red seal professional you need to know the information, what you don’t know you need to know where to find the answers, this is more often than not the code books relating to the trade you are in.
Here’s some of the problems:
High school counselors are next to useless in guiding students in the right direction with course selections and career goals. They could find there backsides with both hands 9 out of 10 times.
The government trades and development ministry (they change there name after every election) does little (actually next to nothing) to approach students in high school with career planning.
The government job retraining program is more about feeding cash to training facilities than it is in making sure people are actually retained for different jobs.
The universities are just crammed with those who have no clue, seriously ask students what they want to do and a bulk of them will tell you they don’t really know what they want to do (other than sit in class and waste space which could be used by someone who does know what they want to do and needs that occupied seat).
Career education is over priced, impractical for time, loaded with useless courses that have no actual bearing on the trade. It’s all about the money for the schools and little to do with the students.
Until the trades speak up and tell the government that they need to fast track some of these trades, this issue will always be just that and issue.
NMG, I’m sorry to inform you, but that ISN’T why the economy is being challenged. It would still be challenged if we had a full complement of fully trained tradespeople available right now to fill every current vacancy. And maybe even more so.
The problem today is twofold. Over-production. And under-consumption. And unfortunately for us, increasing the former still further isn’t going to do anything to correct the latter.
What it takes to do that is a different type of education than is going to be currently taught in any university or other centre of higher learning.
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