Ensuring the skill is there

The Kootenay Regional Workforce Table has recently been created to help local companies and residents meet their economic goals

Leah Bradish looks forward to serving as secretariat manager at the Kootenay Regional Workforce Table. — Photo courtesy College of the Rockies

If you’ve ever had trouble finding employees with a level of training appropriate to the position available, you’re not alone. There is said to be a Canada-wide shortage of skilled labour, and this has only become an increasing issue over time.

Locally, the Kootenay Regional Workforce Table has been established to help address this situation. The workforce table is designed to help provide a clearer picture of where specific shortages are in order to enable the college system, private trainers and businesses in general to respond to where the training is needed. The idea is to be able to align available training with actual industry and business needs.

Leah Bradish, director of continuing education at College of the Rockies, is supporting the table as secretariat manager and East Kootenay liaison.

“We are thrilled to have such a diverse table with representatives from a wide range of industries, small business, First Nations, and service providers from all parts of the region,” she said.

Despite the diversity of the table, there is still a need to hear from others with a vested interest in labour shortages. In February and March 2013, focus groups will be held in a number of subregions throughout the Kootenays. Anyone interested can watch for updates on the ministry website.

“The hope with the focus groups is that it’s going to enable us to reach out and speak with each region’s industries and employ small business, chambers of commerce, the folks that help people find jobs, and the trainers in each of the subregions,” said Bradish. “This will help us to get a better geographic-specific sense of the needs that are unique to those areas, but also we’ll get a really, really strong representation from business and industry in each of those areas.”

The workforce table will be looking at what sort of training can be offered through both private and public training means. Selkirk College and College of the Rockies are the two public institutions that are currently serving the Kootenays. They will be working together to try to ensure that many of the educational needs will be met.

“Selkirk has a lot of capacity as well (as College of the Rockies)," said Bradish. "If they are doing training in an area that we aren’t, and we are doing training in an area that they aren’t, hopefully between the two of us we will be able to better meet the needs as long as we’re all collaborating.” 

The amount of time it takes to implement any needed training will depend on what sort of needs the college identifies. Developing a new program with its own infrastructure could take a number of years. However, if it’s a matter of increasing capacity in facilities that are already available, these changes could be made very quickly.

The Kootenay Regional Workforce Table will be applying all the combined knowledge and expertise of its members along with input from the focus group sessions. The outcome will be the development of a regional skills training plan that will identify economic development opportunities and make recommendations on training programs to help ensure that an appropriate labour force is available. This training plan is expected to inform both industry and service providers for 10 to 15 years. This is good news for companies that will be seeking skilled labour, as well as for individuals who will be looking for sustained employment.

As Bradish said, “The last thing that we want is for industry and businesses to be unable to take advantage of an economic opportunity that could lead to growth, simply due to a lack of qualified people.”