The Province confirmed today that the International Post-Graduates (IPG) pilot project, conducted over the last three years, will become a permanent category of the Provincial Nominee Program.

The Kootenay Regional Workforce Table has completed a skills training plan that will help ensure communities in the region have skilled workers to fill both current and future jobs.

Over the next decade, there will be an estimated one million job openings in B.C. in many sectors, including liquefied natural gas, mining and mineral exploration, and shipbuilding. Of those job openings, 43 per cent will require trades and technical training.

In September 2012, the government launched a Skills and Training Plan to expand and align skills training programs with economic opportunities throughout the province to ensure British Columbia has a workforce with the right skills, in the right places, at the right times.

Government has invested $100,000 in a Labour Market Partnerships Program agreement with the Automobile Retailers Association (ARA) and its automotive industry partners to undertake labour market research to identify the future labour needs of the sector.

The B.C. government is investing $403,615 to provide welding and metal fabrication training for people from First Nations communities under a Labour Market Sector Solutions (LMSS) partnership between the B.C. government and the Resource Training Organization (RTO).

The B.C. government is investing $500,000 to extend a mining and environmental training project that will allow 35 people to receive the supports and services they need to find work in the mining or energy sectors.