NDP Leader John Horgan will expand BC’s apprenticeship and trades training programs, a key part of the BC NDP’s commitment to create good sustainable jobs for people.
“Apprenticeships are the best way to train the workforce of tomorrow. Christy Clark and the BC Liberals gutted the system that helped workers get training, get a job, and get certified. Completion rates went down, and jobs that would have gone to British Columbians went to temporary foreign workers,” said Horgan.
“We’re going to fix that. We will invest in the workforce of tomorrow, and train British Columbians to fill the 96,000 jobs we are going to create. With every school, hospital, highway and home we build, we will make sure there are opportunities for apprenticeships and trades training.”
Horgan’s comments followed a tour of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 115 Training Centre in Maple Ridge.
John Horgan and the BC NDP will expand skills training and apprenticeship programs to create more opportunities for people by:

• Setting apprenticeship ratios on government-funded projects so that building new roads, bridges, schools and hospitals create skilled workers for the future
• Providing incentives to public sector employers to hire and train apprentices
• Strengthening credentialing requirements to improve safety, quality and consumer protection as we improve training
• Partnering with First Nations to increase the number of skilled First Nations workers
• Requiring local hiring on government projects
• Providing incentives to increase the number of women in apprenticeships