The Industry Training Authority was deep into training mode itself Monday. The organization that oversees the province’s skilled trades system laid out how its newly minted group of apprenticeship advisers will work with industry and other stakeholders in a bid to fill the looming shortage of skilled labour.
The ITA appointed 15 regional advisers in hopes of improving the pathway would-be tradespeople have to take as its mandate is to improve the knowledge and awareness of the apprenticeship system.
“They will work with schools, industry and the apprentices themselves to help guide the process better,” said ITA chief executive Gary Herman. “We have an excellent customer support team available by phone and online, but this puts boots on the ground if [apprentices, employer sponsors and other stakeholders] need face-to-face time or to deal with specific issues.”
Herman said with the province looking at one million jobs being created through retirement and industry expansion between now and 2022, the time was right to bring back this kind of consultant.
“It was very clear [after a 2013 consultation with industry] this was needed again,” Herman said. “We need people regionally to help apprentices, employers and First Nations.”
In Victoria, the ITA appointed Kyle Preston as its regional adviser. The Red Seal journeyman, who has worked as an apprenticeship teacher and career adviser, will work out of the Work B.C. offices on Borden Street.
Herman said all of the advisers will have plenty of work, given the need for skilled trades around the province.
“It’s not panic, but we are starting to see things pick up in the northeast where it’s extremely tight right now with oil and gas,” Herman said. He added the Island is seeing increased demand in places such as Campbell River, where institutional and industrial construction is booming, and in Victoria, where the residential construction market is strong.
When asked if the province will have a labour force to handle the expected squeeze of LNG development, shipbuilding and resource extraction, Herman said “we will.”
“We are connecting with industry, speaking with employers and we need employers to look at their succession planning,” Herman said. More apprentices have to be hired so there is a knowledge transfer from the retiring workforce to the newcomers.
The ITA has also buffed up its school programs, making visits to Grade 5 classes so students are familiar with what the trades have to offer.
Herman said selling kids on a future in the trades is much easier than convincing parents and high- school guidance counsellors.
“So many of them are thinking of their kids going on the university path and career counsellors push the same thing,” he said. “But it’s a good opportunity for a career.”
