BC – B.C.’s Skills for Jobs Blueprint recently celebrated its second anniversary with an announcement of almost $8 million in funding over three years for pre-apprenticeship programs that will help young British Columbians find their fit in our diverse, strong and growing economy.
This funding will connect more than 5,000 students with trades training, allowing them to discover and explore the trades earlier, mapping out a clearer path through high school straight through post-secondary and into the workforce.
An apprenticeship is one of the best ways for youth to gain the necessary skills for a career in the trades and to join the workforce. The Industry Training Authority delivers youth apprenticeship programs in partnership with school districts to help youth start their apprenticeship training and earn high school credits at the same time.
The Top 10 Blueprint successes to date include:
- Almost $8 million in new youth trades funding
- $130 million in funding realigned for in-demand education and job training
- $21 million in funding for industry-standard training equipment at post-secondary institutions
- More than 1,000 participants in the first year of the $30 million for the Aboriginal Skills Development Fund
- More than 58,000 youth and over 20,000 adults interacted with Find Your Fit in the last year
- 2,526 participants in the Single Parent Employment Initiative
- $650,000 to 27 school districts to increase recruitment capacity and skills training
- More than 3,000 new critical trades seats
- Almost 3,000 employers trained over 15,000 employees through the Canada Job Grant funding
- All public projects over $15 million are required to hire and train apprentices
The Blueprint is a cross-government, multi-ministry initiative that was launched two years ago to help British Columbians get the skills they need to be first in line for the almost one million job openings that are projected by 2024. This collaborative approach is helping to re-engineer B.C.’s education programs towards a data-driven system focusing investments toward training for jobs that are in-demand.
B.C. invests more than $7.5 billion in education and training each year from early learning programs for the youngest British Columbians all the way through to post graduate education. By 2024 the government will redirect $3 billion in training investments to focus on skills and programs for in-demand jobs, to better align annual investments to meet emerging labour market needs. In-demand occupations that require post-secondary education or training range from professional to management to trades in a range of sectors including technology, resource and health care.
