A new funding program will buy equipment for B.C. high schools to enhance skilled trades training and offset an expected a massive labour shortage.
“It became pretty clear phoning around the province that a lot of high schools could use a bit of help with regards to outfitting their shop classes,” Abigail Fulton, executive director of the Construction Foundation of B.C., said Tuesday. The foundation was set up a year ago as the philanthropic arm of the association.
“Shop classes are expensive to maintain and keep up and a lot of them have fallen by the wayside.”
Industry-led BuildForce Canada predicts that B.C. will be short 30,500 skilled workers by 2021 as workers retire and major resource and infrastructure projects roll out in this province.
Just one in 32 B.C. high school graduates enter trades. B.C. needs that number to rise to one in five to fill projected jobs, it said.
The focus for the past two decades has been to encourage students to attend university rather than join a trade, Fulton said.
Schools and school districts committed to trades training are invited to apply immediately for money to upgrade their shop classrooms. Applications close at the end of January.
The foundation wants to raise $2 million and announce selected recipients in April for the first round of funding. Grants go to schools or districts to buy equipment, upgrade facilities and pay for installation.
Plans call for at least one school in each of four regions in the province to receive money but it could be more, Fulton said. The regions are Vancouver Island, Vancouver Regional, North, and Southern Interior.
Needs of different shop classes around the province are drastically different, she said. “We don’t want this just to be a Band-Aid. We want to help. We want to make a difference.”
The foundation is not putting a limit on requests. It wants applicants to have a chance to state what they need.
One school, for example, said that a piece of welding equipment could significantly enhance its classroom, she said. One region said that a mobile facility to visit different schools would work in that area.
Another matter is whether a school district is comfortable with the idea of corporate recognition, Fulton said. That question is raised in the submission. The foundation does not want to create a political issue, it only wants to help, she said.
> Online: constructionfoundationbc.ca/shopclass
