$3.3 million in funding allows BCIT to expand skills training

BURNABY — The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) will be able to create a mass-timber training hub to provide expanded opportunities for people to gain new skills in the sector, thanks to $3.3 in funding from the province.

Two new mass-timber courses are expected to be piloted in the fall and once construction is complete on the new trades and technology complex for the Burnaby campus, all mass-timber training courses will be housed there.

The expanded mass-timber training programs at BCIT will increase accessibility for professionals to be job ready, fill the current knowledge gaps in the industry and combat the skilled worker challenge in the sector, indicates a release.

The funding is part of the StrongerBC: Future Ready Action Plan, which focuses on making education and training more accessible, affordable, responsive and relevant to help people prepare for jobs.

“Mass timber is a strong, clean building technology that is at the centre of our province’s future construction blueprint,” said Jagrup Brar, minister of state for trade, and chair of the Mass Timber Advisory Council, in a statement. “Partnering with BCIT to increase our province’s catalogue of available skills training builds on the work we’ve done to create a world-class mass timber sector in B.C. and helps ensure our province has enough workers with the right skills to construct our climate-smart buildings of the future, and build more homes with mass timber.”