The B.C. construction industry’s future leaders are in the spotlight for the month of April.
The British Columbia Institute of Technology’s (BCIT) School of Construction and the Environment’s high-performance building lab was the setting for the launch of Construction and Skilled Trades Month on April 3 at the school’s Burnaby campus, a celebration of both the industry and those in training to join its ranks.
Representatives of the school, local associations, construction firms and members of the provincial government were all in attendance to speak about present and near-future opportunities to young students about to enter the industry.
“More students graduate from BCIT trades and construction programs than any other post-secondary (institution) and actually if you go back in the history of BCIT, this construction school is the core of our mandate,” said BCIT president Kathy Kinloch.
“Our mandate is to ensure employers in B.C. are leading sectors that can employ skills-ready, job-ready people and we believe we deliver.”
BCIT awarded over 2,000 trades credentials in 2016-17, Kinloch added, with more than 1,200 apprentices completing their last level of training at the school.
Industry Training Authority CEO Gary Herman stressed to the assembled students the importance of a Red Seal to their future careers, especially given an impending wave of opportunity due to baby boomers moving into retirement.
“Seventy per cent of job openings in the next 10 years will be due to retirements. This paints a bright picture for today’s apprentices and journeypeople as they have great opportunities to advance their careers in the skilled trades,” he said.
“But get your ticket. Once you have your Red Seal, the world is your oyster. You can be a master of the tools for your whole career, can move into estimating, project management, be a site super somewhere…go run a company for someone or go build your own company or your own empire.”
Wayne Hand, dean of the School of Construction and the Environment, pointed to the school’s efforts to create a diverse and welcoming workforce for women, First Nations and other sectors of the population who have not traditionally entered into the trades.
“We’ve done a lot of work to attract Indigenous students into the sector. We’ve worked very closely with Access Trades (an aboriginal apprenticeship training group), and this year alone we’re offering five foundation trades specifically for that group. For women in trades we have special efforts and even clubs to promote women in construction,” Hand said.
BCIT also has a program that is specific to women in the trades, he said, “which gives people a chance to come in, get exposure to about 16 trades and from there they can select the one that hits the mark with their interests.”
The British Columbia Construction Association (BCCA) put in a request in November 2017 to the provincial government for April to be designated as Construction and Skilled Trades Month, BCCA president Chris Atchison said, regardless of uncertainty regarding at least one major capital project.
“We did it anticipating that at that time there was a decision coming for Site C, and we didn’t know if it would be favourable or not. But either way, we felt that the industry may come out of that announcement as somewhat divided, and we felt as advocates for the entire construction industry, we’d better mobilize and come together to really celebrate all that’s going on in this province with regards to the built environment and to construction and skilled trades,” Atchison said.
“We have a robust, active and innovative industry that we really want to shine a light on in order to build the workforce that we want, and acknowledge the workforce we have today.”
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