Prince George, B.C. - The Province is investing $17 million in a number of projects around B.C. to improve the skills of people who are either unemployed or under-qualified, providing small businesses with new training resources to meet their labour demands.

 

Training can be either job-specific, or can focus on building essential skills like computer use, literacy and working with others, to help employees expand their abilities and improve productivity.

 

The projects include: 

 

This project, provided through the Truck Loggers Association, will develop

specific training plans to help people prepare to return to the forest industry of the future. The program will be offered on Vancouver Island and the North Coast, and in the Cariboo, Nechako and the Northeast.

 

 

The British Columbia Construction Association is offering this project to help unemployed people and workers with low skills enter and advance in construction careers. It will also strengthen small businesses in the construction sector. The program will be offered through 11 locations: Prince George, Abbotsford, Campbell River, Fort St. John, Nelson, Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, Prince Rupert, Vancouver and Victoria. (www.bccassn.com

 

 

Other programs that will impact regions north of 100 Mile House are:

 

This project will provide workers in the manufacturing sector who have low

skills with the training to develop tools in problem-solving and upgrade their  foundational literacy and numeracy skills. It will also help small business in the manufacturing sector become more competitive. The project will be delivered by the Alliance of Canadian Manufactures & Exporters on Vancouver Island (operating as Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, BC Division), on the southwest Mainland, in the Thompson-Okanagan and in the Cariboo. (www.pullaheadbc.com)

 

 

This provincewide project is designed to upgrade the skills of people working

for small businesses, ensuring employees have the training they need to do their jobs. It is offered through ASPECT (Association of Service Providers for Employability and Career Training). (www.aspect.bc.ca/about/asbetp.php)

 

 

Through this provincewide project, the British Columbia Lodging and Campgrounds Association will help seasonal employees keep working year-round. Workers' skill levels will be assessed, training provided where needed, and employees working in one season (for example, winter accommodation in a ski area) matched with jobs in another season (for example, an RV Resort).

 

 

Under this project, the Canadian Home Builders' Association of British Columbia will expand its delivery of eight residential construction courses to new areas of the province, improving the technical or business skills of unemployed people or workers with low skills. The courses will be available in 14 new locations:

Campbell River, Castlegar, Cranbrook, Fort Nelson, Fort St. John, Invermere, Nelson, Port Alberni, Port Hardy, Powell River, Prince Rupert, Sechelt, Terrace and Williams Lake. (www.chbabc.org)