TRU dean of trades and technology Lindsay Langill named to B.C.’s revamped ITA board

NEWS — A Thompson Rivers University dean has been named to a new board of directors for B.C.’s Industry Training Authority (ITA).

Lindsay Langill, the dean of trades and technology at TRU, was appointed along with eight others today by Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training Minister Shirley Bond.

The revamped board is responsible for building partnerships with industry and labour on training and apprenticeships and to implement 29 recommendations included in a report on the ITA’s past performance.

EnCana CEO Gwynn Morgan will chair the board at a salary of $1 per year.

Bond said a major goal of the ITA is to “get students from study to the workplace more quickly.”

A report last week by consultant Jessica McDonald found that the ITA had failed to meet the needs of the job market and that while there are skills shortages in northern B.C., apprentices trained here are working in Alberta.

“Currently, there is an undeniable preference to attract skilled workers from other employers,” wrote McDonald, who was appointed by Bond last September to conduct the review. “Other jurisdictions in Canada have taken a tougher stand on this.”

She said more advisors need to be hired to support apprentices and employers.

Her report, which was announced as part of the provincial Liberals’ new B.C. Skills for Jobs Blueprint focusing on trades and technology in B.C.’s education system, recommended more coordination of existing programs, with employers being encouraged to work with training providers and the K-12 system to promote the trades.

Skills for Jobs is intended to “re-engineer B.C.’s education and apprenticeship systems.”

Part of the new board’s responsibilities will be to implement the 29 recommendations in McDonald’s report. “This means ensuring B.C.’s trades training system is ready to meet the labour market demand for workers throughout the province, including the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector and other growing resources industries,” said a ministry release today.

Langill is a TRU professor as well as dean of the school of trades and technology.

Other appointees to the ITA include Rick Kasper, a retired tradesman; Tom Sigurdson, executive director of the B.C. and Yukon Territory Building and Construction Trades Council and a former Alberta MLA; M.J. Whitemarsh, former CEO of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association B.C.; Jonathan Whitworth, CEO of Seaspan; Gordon Grant, communications coordinator of the First Nations Employment Society; Barj Dhahan, CEO of Sandhurst Group; and Andy Calitz, vice president of LNG Canada.