BCBusiness

April 2018 30 Under 30

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

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C o m P A n Y n A m e S p e c i a l F e a t u r e Wanted: Skilled Marine Mechanics to Keep Up With Demand Foundations program could help solve the issue J ust like automobiles, boats require regular servicing: a tune-up twice a year, for starters, and the occasional repair, with more care needed as the vessels age. But the massive growth of the recreational boating industry has led to a shortage of skilled marine mechanics; and with no end of growth in sight, dealers, marinas, and boatyards are increasingly in need of trained mechanical technicians. Unfortunately, when the new Marine Mechanical Technician Apprenticeship Program (MMT) was launched at BCIT in 2014 to replace the obsolete Inboard/ Outboard Foundation-Apprenticeship program operated by Vancouver Island University ( VIU) and BCIT, and the Foundation program was dissolved soon after. Glynis Steen, Dean, Trades and Applied Technology for VIU, points out: "This leaves the boating sector in a precarious position. Virtually every other trade has a Foundation-Apprenticeship program structure: the former takes raw talent and trains them so they can secure employ- ment and provide instant value, and the latter takes these new employees and develops their skill sets." To which Lisa Geddes, Executive Director of Boating BC, adds: "It's extremely difficult for the small regional businesses to invest in untrained mechan- ics and then put them through Apprentice- ship. In B.C. only 16 students complete the B o A t I n g I n B . C .

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