Shortage of skilled workforce priority for LTAB

There is no secret to the fact that there is a lack of skilled workers in the region, and a recent report released by the Local Training and Adjustment Board’s backs that conclusion.

“What we do every year as part of what the training board does is bring communities together in a room and we talk about what the work force and labour force trends are in the area,” explains Executive Director of the Local Training and Adjustment Board Stacie Fiddler.

“We talk about how they affect the community and potentially what actions or opportunities we see as a community can take to address those issues for the next coming year.”

Fiddler says part of that process is the prioritisation where the community spends fake dollars on each of the trends that were listed.

“The community prioritised skill trade shortages as their number one, so what we’re finding is employers are having a tough time finding qualified skilled workforce to fill some of the positions that they have available.”

Fiddler says now that the trends have been prioritised, LTAB and the community partners move into phase two that begins to address the issues.

“Whether it is some type of study or some kind of awareness piece to bring the issues to the forefront,” she states.

“And help move the community forward on working towards an action or solution to address those issues.”

Fiddler says the second priority identified is customer services skills and LTAB will work to address those issues as well.

“That will be the focus of the board for the next little while, bringing these groups together to identify a real solution that we can implement in the community around that issue.”