98 workers displaced by Covid have retrained for new jobs in the tech sector using BC Tech’s Reskilling Program
By Jill Tipping, President and CEO, BC Tech
As recent graduates of the BC Tech Reskilling Program land job after job in the province’s tech sector, I’m reminded of a famous quote from the late author and motivational speaker Jim Rhom: “When you invest in people and lift them toward their potential, they will love you for it.”
Delivered in partnership with Brainstation and LighthouseLabs, the 12-week intensive web development and UX design courses were incredibly popular and filled up fast. As a result, they were able to help 98 graduates develop valuable new skills and learn more about tech roles and career, leaving them suited to work in BC’s growing tech sector.
BC Tech companies, whether large or small, tell us that lack of talent is the biggest challenge they face and it is constraining their growth. Growing and diversifying BC’s tech talent pool is the single greatest economic opportunity for an industry that is essential to BC’s future, and that builds economic resilience across the economy.
As I write this, more than half of the program graduates (and counting) have found employment within the tech sector. On a purely economic basis, this is a tremendous return on investment, especially since the program focused on individuals whose previous employment had been displaced by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And at a personal level the program was tremendously impactful to our participants who were lavish in their praise and appreciation:
Reading these comments and others like them fills me with pride and optimism that we are creating pathways to brighter futures and changing lives for the better. We all benefit from these programs – the participants themselves, their friends and families and of course tech companies and co-workers who are enriched by a deeper tech talent pool. BC Tech is proud of our industry’s record of job creation in the last year and that BC’s tech companies are driving our province’s economic recovery from Covid.
Funding for the program was provided by the Government of Canada through the Canada-British Columbia Workforce Development Agreement.
