VICTORIA – A new partnership co-ordinated by the Construction Foundation of BC aims to build dialogue and develop new solutions to train and upskill Indigenous youth and their community leaders.
Beginning this summer, the Two-Eyed Seeing Network will host a series of focus groups to seek guidance and input from First Nations communities and youth across the province to help shape efforts and gather emerging strategies around workforce development. Officials say there will be a particular focus on strategies that impact youth.
“Indigenous youth are vital to our future workforce,” shared Abigail Fulton, executive director of the Construction Foundation of BC, in a release. “The Two-Eyed Seeing Network will engage First Nations youth now to ensure their voices have been included in the collective mapping of our future careers.”
The two-year project will include a series of roundtable sessions across the province that explore the past, present and future of B.C. workforce development.
To guide the process, network partners will use a “Two-Eyed Seeing” approach that incorporates a western and an Indigenous lens. Officials explained the program will blend new technologies, standards and practices in a way that honours the whole person and their relationship with the land and with others.
“The Two-Eyed Seeing Network will bring First Nations communities and youth together with industry leaders and education providers to co-create a new pathway to ensure Indigenous youth are successful in their pursuit of future careers,” said Two-Eyed Seeing Consulting CCC Inc owner Dean Heron. “There are new career opportunities on the horizon in clean technology; clean energy; natural resource extraction and processing; marine shipping; the built environment; and manufacturing. We want to ensure that First Nations youth in B.C. are at the table when these new careers arrive.”
The Two-Eyed Seeing Network, funded by the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Centre, is a partnership between the Construction Foundation of BC, Two-Eyed Seeing Consulting CCC Inc., Social Research and Demonstration Corporation, Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre, Vancouver Island University and the Electrical Joint Training Committee.
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