Education blueprint
Poets are still welcome but more welders would be nice, said education minister Peter Fassbender in his announcement of the province’s plan to re-tool the public school system.
With the government forecasting one million jobs in the energy sector by 2022, it is looking to the education system to prepare a workforce.
“We want to give young British Columbians in our K-12 school system a head start to hands-on learning,” said Fassbender.
Fassbender and three other Liberal government cabinet ministers unveiled BC’s Skills and Jobs Blueprint, outlining the government’s plan to give students a path from school to the workforce from the steps of the legislature Tuesday, April 29.
The government estimates thousands of jobs will be created for welders, pipefitters and heavy equipment operators to build the proposed liquified natural gas industry and other resource projects and an increased demand will be seen for doctors, nurses and engineers.
The blueprint’s three objectives in the schools-to-jobs plan focus on early hands-on learning in schools, shifting education to match in-demand jobs and forming partnerships with industry and labour to develop training.
Advanced education minister Amrik Virk called the changes generational and post-secondary institutions will focus their training programs and courses on what the government calls high-demand occupations. He concedes that some disciplines like philosophy will lose out to business, commerce and science.
The government said it invests $7.5 billion each year in education and training. The re-engineering plan will allocate $160 million this year and within four years the funding will be $400 million annually.
Shirley Bond, minister of jobs, tourism and skills training, said the government will undertake a complete review of the 10-year-old Industry Training Authority (ITA), the Crown corporation created to lead the province’s trades training system.
Talks resume
Health care unions and the province resumed contract negotiations this week with the help of mediator Vince Ready.
Last week, the 11-union Facilities Bargaining Association (FBA) announced that its members voted 96 per cent in favour of labour action after negotiations which began in January failed to produce an agreement.
The FBA represents 47,000 BC workers in a wide range of professions from care aides and ambulance paramedics to pharmacy technicians and rehabilitation assistants.
Hospital Employees’ Union communications director Mike Old estimates that locally about 380 health care workers are involved between Powell River General Hospital, Olive Devaud Residence and the BC Ambulance Service.
The current collective agreement with the Health Employers’ Association of BC expired March 31, 2014.
The main issues at the table are job security, protection of benefits, health and safety and changes to the ambulance service.
FBA spokesperson Bonnie Pearson said she is hopeful that the strong strike mandate will help focus all parties to reach a settlement.
“Our objective is to negotiate a fair and respectful settlement that improves working and caring conditions on the front lines of our health care system,” she said.
