The start of a new year marks a fresh beginning full of opportunity. If a new job is on your “to-do” list, consider a future in a rewarding career in the trades.

The holiday season is a time when British Columbians reflect on what the year past has brought them and look to new opportunities that lie ahead. Many will decide the time is right to get post-secondary education and training, and that decision has never been more important.

Canadians will be better equipped for the well-paying middle-class jobs of today and tomorrow as a result of a federal-provincial investment of $8.9 million in a new Centre of Excellence in Sustainability at the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (NVIT).

Canadians will be better equipped for the well-paying middle-class jobs of today and tomorrow as a result of a $13.8-million investment in the College of New Caledonia for a new heavy-mechanical trades-training facility.

Students at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) are benefitting from $250,000 in program and equipment funding as they prepare for in-demand careers in computer and information technology.

Canadians will be better equipped for the well-paying middle-class jobs of today and tomorrow with a $22.4 million investment at Vancouver Island University (VIU) to expand the Marine, Automotive and Trades Complex and create a District Geo-Exchange Energy System.

Eunice Kuatsjah, an international student from Indonesia, never expected her Simon Fraser University experience would result in a novel business start-up. But she is among a group of students who have developed a prototype for an inexpensive, customized hearing aid that could disrupt the global market.

"He shoots, he scores!" may take on a new meaning for entrepreneurial Simon Fraser University students.

Simon Fraser University students with entrepreneurial ambitions in technology will be able to continue building their skills and developing market-driven products after an expansion of the successful Technology Entrepreneurship @ SFU program.