Photo by Filckr.com

More people will be able to access new and enhanced resources and programming to support entering the trades and to help complete their apprenticeships through a $5-million provincial investment.

This investment supports six B.C. organizations specializing in attracting people into the skilled trades and supporting them during their pre-apprentice training and apprenticeships:

Aboriginal Community Career Employment Services Society (ACCESS)

BC Centre for Women in the Trades (BCCWITT)

Canadian Home Builders Association of BC (CHBA BC)

Construction Foundation of BC (CFBC)

SkillPlan

Skills Canada BC

The provincial investment will also help remove barriers to enter the trades or complete apprenticeships for women, Indigenous Peoples and other under-represented groups, with new and enhanced programming and resources for equity-serving groups, anti-racism and other inclusivity-based workplace training programs and student bursaries.

Building opportunities for people to prepare for a career in the trades supports the StrongerBC: Future Ready Action Plan, which focuses on making education and training more accessible, affordable, responsive and relevant to help people prepare for the jobs of today and tomorrow. The action plan is supported by a provincial investment of $480 million over three years.

There are more than 80 skilled trade occupations, with more than half with Red Seal endorsements.

In-demand skilled trades occupations in B.C. include cooks, automotive service technicians and electricians.

There are 83,000 job openings for tradespeople expected over the next 10 years.

The number of apprentices who complete their training averages just over 6,400 a year.