Auto Sector Launches ‘One Stop Shop’ Careers Website
Jobs Minister Shirley Bond at this morning’s announcement at Northland Chrysler Jeep Dodge in Prince George – photo 250News
Prince George, B.C. – A new strategy aimed at addressing the pending skills shortage in B.C.’s automotive sector was unveiled in Prince George today.
It includes a high school outreach program, a comprehensive human resources strategy, an extensive industry employee handbook and most notably, a new centralized website (www.bcautocareers.ca).
The strategy was driven by a $100,000 grant provided to the B.C. Automotive Sector Alliance (BCASA) by the provincial government back in 2013.
“The average age in this sector as a whole is 55,” said Jobs Minister Shirley Bond this morning. “And what that tells us is that there is going to be a significant transition period here pretty soon where people will be moving on to the next phase of their lives.”
As a result she said that will likely translate into about a 30% turnover rate in the coming years which is where the new website comes in.
“It’s a one-stop shop. So if you are an employer and you are looking for employees these employees will be able to go to the site and find out what jobs are available,” said Bond.
Along with job postings in a variety of career options, the site also includes job profiles and training information.
Blair Qualey, president and CEO of the New Car Dealers Association of BC, calculated the pending skills shortage means the industry will need upwards of 20,000 skilled workers in the coming decade.
He says those jobs will range from mechanics, technicians and sales people, to customer service professionals, accountants, business administrators and managers.
“With an unprecedented number of available job positions in the coming years, we want young people to know about the exciting careers in our industry and the resources available to them,” said Qualey.
“That is why we are in Prince George today, participating in TeenFest (at the Civic Centre) and promoting our new website that connects jobs to people in the North and across B.C. Job seekers at any stage of their career should visit the website.”
Comments
Interesting; the BC Automotive Sector Alliance (BCASA) is a cooperative partnership between the Automotive Retailers Association and the New Car Dealers Association of BC created to provide a centralized resource network for the automotive sector across BC.
“The BCASA primarily exists to resolve current and potential HR issues within the sector. BCASA’s focus providing career, HR and training guidance across the entire automotive sector career spectrum, including automotive service technicians, automotive collision repair technicians, service counter staff, office administration staff, and support specialists. Initial project funding was provided by the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training.” www .newcardealers.ca/car-careers/education-and-career-resources/
At one time it was up to the individual car dealerships to arrange and deliver automotive trades training and develop their workers into qualified automotive technicians. Now they rely on government assistance (welfare) to do this, and not just for automotive trades, as it now includes service counter staff, and office staff… sweet deal for private sector car dealers getting government assistance and subsidized training for all their HR needs.
In return; “…the industry will need upwards of 20,000 skilled workers in the coming decade.” Sounds just like the promised 100,000 LNG jobs that were supposed to appear… Christy Clark… still selling her “delusions” of grandeur.
At one time there never used to exist all the consumer protection legislation that government has since enacted. At one time auto body shops didn’t have to deal with an auto insurance monopoly, owned by the government, that dictates to them what they’re going to repair wrecks for. If they want to stay in business, that’s what they get from that monopoly insurer, and that’s it. At one time automobiles were a lot less sophisticated to fix than they are today. A lot of that added sophistication has been mandated by government legislation covering a whole gamut of areas. At one time anyone who had some mechanical ability could get hired as a mechanic, and he either could do the repairs and had a job with excellent job security, or he couldn’t, and didn’t. Now he needs to have a Red Seal certification, and a great deal more training, which is dealer provided in conjunction with the auto manufacturers at THEIR expense, not the government’s, on top of that to perform his job. At one time auto dealers, and every other kind of business, weren’t being taxed literally to death on the real estate they occupy.
At one time people used to lead horses hitched to a buggy.
Another at one time, now that I start thinking back to my high school days.
At one time automotive training started in High School.
At one time there were no community colleges in Canada.
In those times the government also assisted with paying for the training, except it was at high school level, not vocational school.
The more difficult things become, the more welfare we need from the public purse to assist with training.
What has actually been happening in recent years is that government has gone directly to industry to fund them for specialized training rather than having community colleges devise programs in conjunction with industry and then have the colleges lobby government to fund the colleges with money to run the programs. While community colleges may still be involved in one way or another, with industry in control they are on the hook for making it work as well as employing the grads.
In the end, there is public money involved in both approaches. Whether this is an improvement is yet to be seen.
On their website the BCASA says “Initial project funding was provided by the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills and Training”. I have not been able to find how much that “initial project funding” was. It is our tax dollars, so if anyone knows, or is able to find out the amount, could you please post it on here?
Yeesh… don’t mind me, I think it was the $100,000 of our tax money as stated in the article.
That’s peanuts for welfare for the auto sales industry . We are spending billions for the benefit of LNG . Ever wonder why site-C rhymes with LNG . Another rate payer gift for LNG . Desmog for the story .
LNG and Site C have potential to bring in export dollars, Ataloss. The auto sales industry doesn’t. It simply depends on the spending of dollars already here. Which are currently insufficient in their totality in the hands of the BC public to meet the totality of ongoing costs expressed in dollars as they flow through into prices. So governments of every stripe, even Green Party ones, if we were ever so unfortunate to have one of those visited upon us, are ALWAYS going to give priority to anything that can potentially bring in export credits. To do otherwise would be to “bite the hand that (really) feeds them.” And you can rest assured NONE of them are going to do that.
gopg2015:-“At one time people used to lead horses hitched to a buggy.”
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I think you might have meant to say “drive” horses hitched to a buggy. And they took both horses and buggies to blacksmiths to have them re-shod, or the buggy’s wheels or other parts repaired. And blacksmithing was somewhat of an art which most people didn’t understand the technical aspects of then than they do anymore the technical aspects of repairing many things that go wrong with their cars now. The vocational schools, or even high school automotive classes where they’re offered, are a good start towards teaching the basics. But beyond those basics the modern mechanic now has to master a lot of repairing that’s quite specific to the types of vehicles he’ll be working on. And so that kind of training is going to have to come through the dealers, in conjunction with the manufacturers whose products they’re trying to sell. Sales training in the automotive field, as well as accounting, is also going to have to be done this way. The large auto manufacturers all have their own accounting systems, which EVERY dealer in their products is required to use. So any assistance the government can provide towards the costs of this training is certainly going to be most welcome. Those so trained are not in any way ‘indentured’ ~ they can change careers on a whim. And when they do, all the investment their employer has made in them is lost to that employer.
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