B.C. refocuses education, skills training in plan to fill 1 million jobs

VICTORIA – Job training is going to become the focus of British Columbia’s education and apprenticeship systems.

Premier Christy Clark unveiled her government’s B.C.’s Skills and Jobs Blueprint today, outlining the government’s promise to give young people a seamless path from school to the workplace.

The blueprint has three objectives to maximize the school-to-jobs plan, including focusing on early, hands-on learning in schools, shifting education to match jobs in demand and entering partnerships with industry and labour to deliver training.

One of the proposed changes includes reforming Grade 10 to 12 graduation requirements to give students skills and knowledge to find jobs after high school.

The government will be asking post-secondary institutions to focus their training programs and courses on what it calls high-demand occupations and concedes that some courses like philosophy, will lose out to business, commerce and sciences.

The education plans are designed to put British Columbians first in line to fill one million expected job openings by 2022.