The Industry Training Authority of B.C. released its Transition Plan, highlighting four pillars to guide its new engagement strategy.
The pillars include transforming industry relations, launching an LNG action plan, realigning training investment and enhancing the ITA’s capability.
The authority’s new focus will be preparing the province for a job crunch that the government predicts will reach as much as a million job openings by 2022.
Leading the ITA during the plan’s implementation is newly appointed ITA CEO Gary Herman.
"It’s about making sure we have the right number of people, with the right skills, in the right places at the right time, so projects can move forward," he said.
The ITA has already completed the first 90 days of the plan, including announcing partnerships with government and schools to expand training opportunities for in-demand trades.
"It’s a busy time and it’s also an exciting time," Herman said.
He said the pillars are the centre of the transition plan.
The first pillar is to launch an LNG action plan.
The ITA is working with industry on a plan for LNG trades training to align it with regional and sectoral demands.
The ITA expects to release the action plan later this month.
The second pillar is to re-align training investment.
This means working with government to develop and establish transparent processes for making training investment decisions aligned with labour market demands.
The third pillar is to transform industry relations.
ITA has introduced a broader industry engagement approach to ensure training matches demand.
To accomplish this, the ITA introduced sector advisory groups to represent key trades.
The groups will advise the ITA on the most important and relevant sectoral training strategies to address labour market demand.
They will give government input on government collected data sets, assumptions, high-policy level issues and general labour market forecasts.
According to the ITA, the groups will be initiated by the industry and made up of different sized employers, contractors, Aboriginal groups and labour representatives.
The following sectors will get advisory groups: LNG (including Natural Gas) overseen by the Premier’s LNG working group, shipbuilding, construction, mining, forestry, hospitality, transportation, aerospace and manufacturing.
The push for the plan can be traced back to June of last year, when Premier Christy Clark directed Minister of Jobs Shirley Bond to conduct a review of the role and function of the ITA.
The review was initiated in September.
It examined the current mandate of the ITA, including governance, roles and responsibilities, the outcomes achieved to date, and the relationships and interactions with its key system partners.
Based on those recommendations and B.C.’s Skills for Jobs Blueprint, the ITA has recalibrated itself.
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