SASKATOON – When Canada’s international trade minister Art Eggleton visited here recently he praised exporters for jobs they created while developing new markets.
Eggleton told two export companies in Saskatoon that “the more new markets companies (find), the more jobs for Canadians at home.”
But Art Knight, president of the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology, sees it in a different light and pointed to a possible flaw in Eggleton’s reasoning.
“There’s no point in generating jobs unless we have trained people for them.”
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A new challenge has appeared in today’s workplace. Instead of a need for more jobs, many export manufacturers need more skilled people to fill positions they already have.
Two weeks ago, the Saskatchewan Labor Force Development Board, an independent board co-chaired by representatives from Saskatchewan labor and business, released a survey it conducted of more than 100 Saskatchewan companies.
It found that most companies lack qualified people to fill positions and many within the companies aren’t properly trained.
Knight isn’t surprised at the findings. SIAST takes an annual survey of its graduates, and has found that 81 percent of them have jobs in their fields, and 95 percent remain in Saskatchewan.
In Alberta, 63 percent of graduates from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton find jobs in their trained fields. No figures are available on how many remain in Alberta, but “the majority stay,” according to Helene Lagace in NAIT’s placement office.
At the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary, 80 percent of graduates find jobs related to their training and 89 percent stay in Alberta.
At Assiniboine College in Brandon, Man., an average of 85 percent of graduates are employed almost immediately in their field.
“In a way (our survey) really confirms and is parallel to what the Saskatchewan Labor Federation Development Board is saying, that there is a very high demand for people with post-secondary skills training,” said Knight.
He blames the lack of skilled workers on the federal government’s refusal to properly fund post-secondary schools.
Brad Harvey, general manager of Trailtech, a trailer company in Gravelbourg, Sask., has been searching for 20 to 25 skilled laborers in the wake of a recent expansion.
“Our fellow manufacturers, when we talk together … every one of them is in need of additional workers to fill positions,” he said.
Janis Stone, executive director of the Saskatchewan Labor Force Development Board, said industry must co-operate to develop a plan using available resources.
“We need to take a sectoral training approach,” she said.
That’s what some people in the Tisdale area in northeastern Saskatchewan have done.
Local businesses, together with the Tisdale-area school division and the Youth Internship Program of Human Resources Development Canada are working to give 14 youths a chance at what they call alternate schooling.
After graduating from high school, participants learn trade skills such as welding, crop protection and marketing.
The project’s goal is to better prepare high school graduates for future jobs.
