ITA Apprenticeship Advisor Meet and Greet
Prince George, B.C.- The Industry Training Authority (ITA) has a special session set for Prince George today to introduce the trades training community to the “Apprenticeship Advisor” for the region.
The Apprenticeship Advisor’s main role is to help build knowledge and awareness of the BC apprenticeship system as well as offer guidance to apprentices and employer sponsors.
The program comes at a time when BC is trying to find enough people to fill the demand for trades jobs that will be created by the dozens of major projects proposed for the province.
It is expected there will be one million job openings in the province by 2020, of that, 43% will be in trades. According to the B.C. Federation of Labour, apprenticeship completion rates have dropped to just 43% . The Advisor’s goals include advancing “apprenticeship continuation and completion.”
The B.C. Federation of Labour has also been calling on the B.C. Government to require apprenticeship opportunities on publicly funded projects.
There are four Apprenticeship Advisors in the Province with offices in Prince George,Terrace, Nanaimo and Kelowna.
Walter Sorokovsky is the Apprenticeship Advisor for the Northeast area and is based in Prince George.
The session today will take place at the Coast Inn of the North in the Nechako room, and is set to start at 4:30.
Comments
Wow four advisors in the province and there used to be how many councilers when it was ITAC? Well I guess four is better than zero!
It looks like the wheel gets reinvented.
Why dont they meet with management and encourage them to take on new apprentice’s?
Programs don’t work unless they are on side.
cheers
Employers just want cheep foreign labor. Fat chance they will train their own apprentice through to completion. Hence the 43% completion rate.
This will never fly but what would work is a legal requirement to hire apprentices or pay an education surcharge tax … for example, an employer would be required to hire and employ one apprentice for every four certified trades workers on their payroll or pay the equivalent apprentice’s salary in a payroll surtax. The taxpayer is already paying for the apprentices’ formal training at BCIT, CNC or wherever. At least the employer can do is hire BC apprentices on an ongoing basis. The surcharge tax could be used to sponsor workers with employers willing to hire additional apprentices above the legal requirement.
Additional apprentices could also be required at a rate of one to one for every foreign worker hired.
Willing to bet the hiring practices would change in a hurry.
By the way, CBC is reporting that the average oil worker’s annual salary is $130,000 per year.. up 6% from last year. What is the average salary for workers at Northwood? And the annual wage increase? Just saying …
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