Labour market partnership announced
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
On March 7 the Labour Market Partnership, which has the goal of building a stronger workforce, was officially launched.
Bow Valley College (BVC), in partnership with the Banff Centre, the Government of Alberta, and the Alberta Rural Development Network, were happy to announce the launch and plans were outlined for the new Employer Workplace Training Research Project. The project will focus on Chestermere and Strathmore regions.
“We’re very excited to engage in this project and the one component would be the rural employer access to work place training needs and the level of aboriginal engagement. The other component will be leadership development,” said Teri McKinnon, with BVC.
Dr. Frideres, with the Banff Centre, spoke of leadership and the programs the Banff Centre has to promote leadership.
McKinnon said questions from Frideres have been integrated into the research project. There will be two phases. One will be a survey which will be available either online or in hardcopy. The second phase will be one-on-one interviews with the employers participating.
A broad based environment scan will be developed to determine the existing workforce essential skill needs, aboriginal engagement and leadership development and will assess the strengths, gaps and needs demand.
A summary report will then be put forth to Alberta Rural Development and the government of Alberta to build an action plan based on the results. McKinnon says a lot of time will be spent crossing the entire sector in industry and look at different sized organizations from micro to large employers. The big thing is figuring out the needs. The partnership can give 5,000 options but if the options aren’t needed then it just becomes useless to that community.
“We want to make sure we come in and meet the needs of what’s here,” said McKinnon.
“What it does for the community is what will hopefully engage people, if they feel that they can have a say in the direction of the future, I’m hoping they’ll participate.”
“This is an important initiative, the whole matter of workforce skills development and leadership development is extremely important in the context of what we know will be a growing workforce shortage in Alberta, which is about opportunity,” said MLA Arno Doerkson, who was in attendance on behalf of the Department of Human Services.
“I think there’s a great opportunity for Albertans to take advantage of opportunities in the work force, I think it’s an opportunity that we haven’t seen in many years in terms of the dynamic of activity happening which creates job opportunities.
“This initiative to work with employers to say what’s needed, how do we provide the skills and the training that’s needed, I think is a good initiative. When I got the invitation I thought well this fits into the context of what I’m working at around the province it’s important to bring these initiatives to rural Alberta to, so I look forward to the results of this.”
It is a six-month research project, which began in February and will be completed in September. McKinnon said they are still looking for employers to take part in the surveys and interviews. Any employers wishing to take part in project can contact McKinnon at 403-362-2550 for more information.