There will be a staggering 140,700 job openings in the professional, scientific, and technical services industry over the next 10 years.

To address this massive talent shortage, the BC Tech Association has launched a K-12 Educators initiative to equip teachers with information and insights during professional development days held online, so they may communicate to their students the potential opportunities that await them.

“The whole goal is to help K to 12 educators understand how their students can survive and thrive and have a wonderful life in a technology-based career. We’re also really pushing to get girls and females and underrepresented individuals into the tech industry, and to start the learning as early as kindergarten” said Rob Goehring, chair of BC Tech’s AI C Council who hosted a recent presentation.

A typical K-12 educators session lasts three hours hours, starting with a 90 minute overview of market trends, de-mystification of key concepts and insights into possible types of employment followed by Q&A. A panel featuring representatives from local tech companies follows to highlight their career journeys and what they love about working in tech.

STEM skills are now associated with 75 per cent of the fastest-growing occupations, and automation is expected to impact 40 per cent of modern jobs in just 15 years. Understanding the inevitably evolving landscape will allow teachers to inform the current and next generations of things to come.

“Globally what we are seeing, and I think everyone is feeling more and more, is how technology is reshaping almost every industry across the globe. And it’s happening faster and faster than it ever used to. Uber is effectively the world’s largest taxi company, yet they don’t own any vehicles. Airbnb is the world’s largest accommodation provider, and they don’t own a single piece of real estate – and neither company existed 20 years ago,” said Goehring.