VICTORIA - This past fall, the government announced a plan to expand and align skills training programs with economic opportunities to ensure British Columbia has a workforce with the right skills, in the right places, at the right times. This plan will continue to drive decision-making in 2013.

The key activities of the Skills and Training Plan for British Columbia that are underway or in development are as follows:

• Increase the number of graduates proceeding immediately from high school to a trades or technical program by 50 per cent.
• Expand opportunities for students to begin apprenticeships before graduation and earn graduation credits that also can be applied to the completion of a trades or technical program. 
• Elevate the profile of trades careers through a dedicated initiative. 
• Address priority equipment and facility needs for trades and technical training through the existing capital envelope (Okanagan College $28 million, Camosun College $29.2 million and NorKam Secondary school trades and technology centre of excellence $6.3 million).
• Seek partnerships with industry and others to ensure students have access to new, advanced technologies and equipment already available on worksites. 
• More extensively use B.C.'s sector-based Centres of Training Excellence, building on existing centres for mining and oil and gas, creating hubs to further leverage the finances and experiences of industry. 
• Offer student financial aid support, starting in 2013-14, for specific, targeted in-demand trades and technical skills programs. 
• Encourage major project proponents to submit workforce needs to government so that government and industry can plan for and target training investments in the region.
• Increase training funding by $5 million per year starting in 2013-14 to enable workers to take on higher skill/higher pay work, and help sectors address specific skill needs. These efforts will be funded through the Canada - BC Labour Market Agreement. 
• Introduce 15 regionally dispersed apprentice coaches and improve online resources through the Industry Training Authority and Industry Training Organizations. 
• Pilot an approach, with stakeholders and partners, that improves timelines and outcomes in specific high-priority trades using the lessons learned from other countries. 
• Use the Job Match pilot to inform possible provincewide expansion of the program in 2013, to support an additional 500 workers.
  

Links: Skills and Training Plan: http://www.bcjobsplan.ca/skills-and-training-plan/

Contact:

Media Relations
Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation
250 356-8177