National Aboriginal Day, June 21, is a time for our country’s first people and their descendants to celebrate and share their cultures and values with other Canadians.
It’s also a day when all of us can reflect on the place of Aboriginal People in our society. I consider this throughout the year because of my job at B.C.’s Industry Training Authority (ITA).
We work to help an increasing number of young Aboriginal men and women take part in trades and apprenticeship training. This meets two serious challenges facing our province — an Aboriginal jobless rate much higher than that of the general population, and a growing critical shortage of skilled workers in many industries.
The ITA has focused on this since 2007 and the early results are encouraging. The number of Aboriginal People registered in post secondary technical training programs has grown by 88 per cent, compared to 32 per cent for non-Aboriginals. The figures here, the most recent available, cover the two fiscal years ending 2008-09.
This is good news, but we still have a lot of catching up to do. Fortunately, we’re well positioned to do so.
One reason is a volunteer Aboriginal advisory committee that works with ITA to raise awareness among Aboriginal communities about the great potential of apprenticeships.
Another is federal funding for Aboriginal People with limited skills and no access to Employment Insurance. The money comes to ITA through the Canada-B.C. Labour Market Agreement and we use it to support a variety of programs. Here are two examples.
- Kla-how-eya Aboriginal Centre in Surrey is running cook pre-apprenticeships for 48 students. On completion, they can find related jobs or, as we expect the majority to do, advance to professional cook training.
- In B.C.’s southern interior, the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology is using a mobile training trailer to deliver a pre-apprenticeship Bridging to Trades program to 72 students in rural and remote First Nations communities. On completion, students are better prepared to succeed in college-based apprenticeships.
Through these and similar programs, Aboriginal British Columbians are on a journey — training for productive careers that benefit them personally, their families and communities and the province as a whole.
That’s definitely something to celebrate on National Aboriginal Day.
Written by Gary McDermott. McDermott is Senior Lead, Aboriginal Initiatives, for the Industry Training Authority which oversees trades and apprenticeship training in B.C. For more information, visit www.itabc.ca.
