ITA Review Announced
Thursday, August 22, 2013 @ 3:49 AM
Victoria, B.C. –This fall, a review of the Industry Training Authority will get underway.
The review is aimed at making sure the ITA is meeting its mandate and targets set to help British Columbians land work as the demand for skilled workers increases over the next decade.
It has been estimated that over the next ten years, there will be more than one million job openings in BC with a little more than 40% expected to be in the trades and technical occupations.
Many of the jobs are expected to be in the LNG sector which could require 60 thousand workers during peak construction times, and 75 thousand (direct and indirect) once the proposed LNG plants are up and running.
An independent review leader will be announced and start work next month.
The review will provide government with recommendations to improve and strengthen:
* Oversight and governance of the industry training system.
* Strategic leadership of the system.
* Outcomes that will provide more skilled workers across B.C.
* ITA’s overall service delivery model of the apprenticeship system in B.C. (from pre-apprenticeship through to certification).
* Partnerships and engagement with educators, industry, private sector unions, and other stakeholders.
The final report is to be submitted to government by the end of November.
Comments
“The review is aimed at making sure the ITA is meeting its mandate and targets set to help British Columbians land work as the demand for skilled workers increases over the next decade.”
With the number of companies and businesses hiring temporary foreign workers in BC, I would hazard a guess that the Industrial Training Authority is missing it’s targets. IMHO
It is one thing to have the infrastructure in place to train people. It is another matter to supply the people to train.
I do not think it is the mandate of ITA to provide the feedstock (students) for its training infrastructure.
Who will be assigned to figure that issue through to a workable conclusion?
Perhaps BC will have more control over immigration in a similar manner that Quebec has done.
Of course, when one looks at the two issues in an integrated fashion, one might wonder why we should import people into BC to boost the number workers by taking in untrained workers and training them when we may simply continue to do what we have always done, import workers who are already trained from other parts of the country and the world.
Some tough decisions which can change the face of BC just because we need workers for what are really short terms projects when looking at the short and mid term.
The ITA does not control the provincial budget. They can only deliver what the colleges get paid to deliver.
If the province wants to ramp up training they will have to provide money and students.
Industry does not sit around waiting. Industry also does not plan far ahead. They tend to be reactive rather than proactive.
The bottom is already dropping out of mining exploration for instance.
Industry has to come to the table with the province. The system in Canada and the USA likely as well, the process of planning for the future needs is dysfunctional.
The ITA is broken and nothing on the horizon is going to fix it.
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