Skills training a foundation for a growing economy

Fellow British Columbians. Skills training is about investing in the future of British Columbia. Our citizens must be first in line for new jobs that are created as we seize and secure the future for our province.

Our growing economy will create one million job openings across our province between now and 2020 – 43 per cent of which will require people with trades and technical training.

Over the past decade, the training and credential granting system in our province has been transformed to reflect economic trends and better match skills to jobs.

Your government is making investments in targeted training: from electricians in the Fraser Valley to masons in Kamloops; from carpenters on the North Island to construction workers, miners and pipe-fitters in the North.

Today, there are more than 34,000 registered apprentices, double the number in 2001.

Your government is actively encouraging young people, women, members of First Nations and the underemployed to consider careers in the trades. This involves working with employers on a number of fronts to expand the number of skilled trades people in British Columbia by:

• hiring apprentices through tax relief like the Training Tax Credit and the new Marine Training Tax Credit; and,
• pursuing measures that will encourage employers to increase the number of apprentices they sponsor.

The mission is clear: the training our citizens receive must be the training that will get them a job today and prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow.

Your government is investing $75 million in new capital and equipment to complement $500 million in annual investments in skills and trades training programs.

This is in addition to an annual $1.9 billion investment for post-secondary education across the province – a 47 per cent increase since 2001.

This substantial investment supports some of the world’s greatest institutions of learning.

British Columbia’s universities and technical institutions are second to none, teaching skills that produce professionals in diverse fields from engineering to the creative arts – this not only helps British Columbia thrive in the knowledge economy, but helps shape it.