Education, skills training crucial to keep B. C. productive and prosperous for our children
Post- secondary education drives the prosperity that we enjoy. Access to and investment in it is vital to the innovation and productivity improvements that drive our economy.
One summer 50 years ago, my family stepped off a CPR train in a small railway and sawmill town called Kamloops. It was 1962 and we had travelled from Australia to an unknown future in Canada. Our horizons were small, but we sensed that our opportunities were unlimited. And the reason for that confidence was our faith in an education system that offered the promise to get us to anywhere our dreams could take us.
At the time, there was only one university in B. C. — the University of British Columbia. With hard work and a bit of luck, my older brother and sisters got themselves to UBC and prospered in their careers in engineering, teaching and medicine. Their work took them to Europe and Asia, and eventually back home to Canada — all because of the solid grounding they got at UBC.
Post- secondary education drives the prosperity that we enjoy. Access to and investment in it is vital to the innovation and productivity improvements that drive our economy. It leads to a workforce equipped with the skills and knowledge required to take on the jobs of the future, whatever they may be.
That is why I believe the recent proposal from B. C. university presidents for the government to provide more funding and spaces in post- secondary institutions merits further careful discussion.
Major mining developments, the big federal shipbuilding contract B. C. is a part of, and other projects, mean B. C. will be blessed with an abundance of positions to be filled down the road.
But all this activity presents a significant challenge: a looming shortage of skilled workers to fill those and many other jobs, whether they’re bluecollar, knowledge- based or professional.
That is where post- secondary institutions come in. They can help close the gap between supply and demand of skilled workers.
The university presidents noted the imminent shortage of skilled workers when they made their case for more financial assistance.
Some post- secondary institutions have already responded to the call. Thompson Rivers University, for example, is teaming up with companies like Tolko Industries with targeted training programs to address the skilled worker shortage in the province’s forest industry.
We are not talking exclusively about blue- collar jobs. In B. C., there is call for a wide range of skills. The province benefits from a variety of resourcebased industries, but they are increasingly dependant upon technology and technological expertise. The knowledgebased workforce flowing from our universities, colleges and institutes gives us the ability to generate good jobs from our resources, and to get the greatest possible economic benefit from them.
As a former B. C. deputy minister of economic development, I saw first- hand how well our province has done with a skilled and well- educated workforce. Even with one of the world’s best paid work sites just across the Alberta border at Fort McMurray, British Columbia continues to attract investors and skilled workers, making it one of the more successful economies in the world today. This must continue.
B. C. has distinguished itself with a strong economy in the face of a lengthy and crippling global recession that has deeply damaged other world economies. This has not happened by accident. Over the past 12 years, the province has created an attractive environment for investment through lower taxes and sound regulation.
And that focus extends to increased educational opportunities that have been made available in a wide variety of fields, in institutions all over B. C. — from the successful Northern Medical School program to the new law school, also at Thompson Rivers University. These made- in- B. C. opportunities provide our citizens with the knowledge and skills to both work anywhere in the world and fuel the prosperity here at home.
We must commit ourselves to ensuring our province’s skilled workers and human capital remain competitive so we can continue to attract investment, create jobs and ensure our children have a world of opportunity. All the things we value most in the public sector, from schools to hospitals to universities, flow from a healthy economy — including an educated and skilled workforce equipped with the right skills to contribute to our future well- being.
It is up to us to ensure good governance, stable tax policies, sound regulation and topnotch education that turns out people properly equipped for the jobs our economy will generate continue to provide our children with the opportunities that will build a bright future — the same kind of future my family benefited from when we stepped off that train in Kamloops half a century ago.