Drastic action needed from B.C. government regarding looming labour shortage: report | 24CA News

More than 850,000 job openings are anticipated over the subsequent decade in Vancouver, in accordance with a Greater Vancouver Board of Trade report.

Currently, the board mentioned Vancouver has 150,000 present job vacancies and has a projected 700,000 staff set to retire over the subsequent ten years.

Dubbed ‘Solving B.C.’s Workforce Challenges’, the report says that with the looming job vacancies, the province must take motion to deal with a possible workforce disaster.

“The employment landscape is evolving more rapidly than ever before. We are proposing a comprehensive strategy to develop and attract the talent required for the jobs of an increasingly digital world, leveraging existing data and industry expertise,” mentioned Bridgitte Anderson, Greater Vancouver Board of Trade president and CEO.

“Government, educational institutions, and the business community need to form a new partnership and embrace innovative approaches to ensure our economy can manage an aging demographic while becoming a global hub for technology and innovation, with sustainability and resilience at the core.”

The report lays out a variety of suggestions that the provincial authorities can take:

• Remove registration necessities for out-of-province healthcare staff, and work with skilled associations/our bodies to drive sooner recognition of overseas credentials
• Streamline the employer registration course of for the Temporary Foreign Worker program from eight to 10 weeks to a most of three days
• Invest to make B.C.’s economic system inclusive for all by selling new approaches for these underrepresented within the workforce, together with Indigenous Peoples and people with disabilities
• Consider an workplace for Indigenous employment that brings collectively post-secondary establishments, and Indigenous employment service businesses
• Increase investments in experiential studying alternatives, together with co-ops and work-integrated studying packages

The B.C. Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, Selina Robinson, gave some feedback concerning the report at a press convention Thursday.

“The report was very much in line with what the government has been hearing and already acting on,” she mentioned.

“There are no surprises. We know about a million job openings will be coming to British Columbia over the next decade.”

Robinson pointed to Thursday’s provincial announcement of $2 million in funding for the growth of paramedic coaching packages for example of labor being finished to organize for the labour scarcity.

“This is an example of the ways in which we are working to deliver a workforce that is ready for tomorrow,” she mentioned.

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