Prince George, B.C.- It  could be a  while before the College of New Caledonia knows just how it will be  impacted by  the  just released Skills for Jobs Blueprint.

Yesterday,  the  Ministry of Jobs, Tourism  and Skills Development, along with the Ministries of Aboriginal Reconciliation,  Advanced Education and  Education, released the  plan  which is aimed at preparing  British Columbians for the  employment opportunities that will be  available when LNG and resource development ramps up.

The plan  calls for  increased spending in trades training,  increasing the number of trades training seats and changes to the student loan programs so students can get out of debt faster.

An additional $6.6 million  will be provided for critical trades seats in an effort to reduce wait lists.  The extra spaces will be added starting this September for programs such as heavy equipment operators, heavy duty equipment mechanics and electricians.

CNC  Director of Communications, Randall Heidt says it may be too early to see  how this plan will impact  CNC “It’s a high level announcement, so  probably in the next few weeks or months we’ll get to  see  exactly how it’s going to play out and how it’s going  to benefit  CNC students and the College in general.”

The Blueprint calls for a closer alignment with industry in order to stay on top of the jobs that are in high demand. That kind of flexibility is important says Heidt “Certainly we want our students to be employed, so we’re always working with industry, I think that’s one of the really important things in here (the Blueprint) is that it’s going to hopefully work better with industry and from what we understand, there’s going to be industry involved at the ITA table and that is a really positive thing.”

He says there are some other positives for students as well, “At first blush we noticed it looks like there’s going to be some improvements to student loans so that’s something that’s good.”  He says it was really nice to see the four ministries “collaborating and working together better than ever before, so hopefully that’s going to benefit students at all levels.”  

The Blueprint is meant to address the  demands for  employees as  it is expected there will be 1 million job openings in the  province  by 2022,  openings created by retirements of skilled labour and  growth in  resource development, specifically LNG.