Regional Apprenticeships Growing Faster Than Provincial Number

Sunday, February 19, 2006 04:30 AM

B.C.'s Industry Training Authority announced earlier this week that it had exceeded targets set for increasing participation in industry training for the second consecutive year.

The ITA announced on Monday that a 2005/2006 target of 24,000 apprentices has been surpassed, with a total of 25,404 apprentices/trainees registered in B.C. as of January 31st. (click here, for earlier story)

In our region, the news appears to be even brighters. As of January 31st of last year, the number of apprentices registered at the College of New Caledonia, Northern Lights College, and Northwest Community College totalled 1,907. This year, registration sits at 3,593 -- an increase of 88-percent.

The increase, however, is doing little to ease fears of labour shortages in the coming years as an aging workforce, local economic boom, and outside competition continue to put pressure on local employers.

This coming Wednesday and Thursday, the John A. Brink Trades & Technology Centre will once again be the site of a construction trades career fair aimed at attracting students, women, and others into the industry.

The construction industry has also sponsored a website aimed at providing potential workers with information about what skilled trades are in demand. To visit that site, go to www.careersinconstruction.ca

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Posted on Sunday, February 19, 2006 04:30 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: chloe on February 19 2006 9:58 AM

it's very interesting to see the numbers for our region increasing. But of course that number doesn't reflect the commercial transport trades workers..........why you may ask; because they only offer entry level here in PG and then you have to go south for the rest of your training. I know a CTM who has gone south to school to find that the majority of his class is from the north. It's not like there is not a professor in pg to offer the instruction. now the CMT's in the north have to be put on a waiting list, a waiting list that may not have to exist if they offered the program in PG.