16 BCBusiness September 2014
W
Y
b . C .' S n e W S a n d v I e W S
f R O M I n d U S T R Y S e C T O R S
09/14
1 9 T O U R I S M
Darren Huston offers
some advice from his ex-
boss Bill Gates.
front
lınes
T R a I n I n g
O
n April 29, Premier Christy Clark unveiled the provin-
cial government's "Skills for Jobs" blueprint: a multi-
year funding strategy that aims to re-engineer the
province's education system, putting more students
on a path toward secure employment. By 2017-18, the
government projects it will have earmarked 25 per cent of
the $1.9 billion it contributes annually to post-secondary
institution operating budgets for programs that lead to high-
demand occupations. Over the next decade, $3 billion will
be redirected to such programs, according to Shirley Bond,
B.C.'s minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training.
The key driver behind this change: growing workforce
demands presented from the $175 billion in
LNG-related
projects—including thousands of wells, hundreds of kilome-
tres of pipelines and a dozen export terminals—slated for
B.C.'s north. According to projections from the B.C. Natural
Gas Workforce Strategy Committee, an industry and
government round table, the plants proposed by Shell,
Petronas, Korea Gas and others will create 58,700 direct
A Blueprint
for Education
The provincial government rethinks
how it spends its $7.5 billion in post-
secondary education and training
funding to meet the needs of an
LNG-
fuelled northern boom
by Jacob Parry
pAUL JOSepH
1 9 T O U R I S M
Darren Huston offers
some advice from his ex-
boss Bill Gates.
