Initiatives Prince George is undertaking a study to help local businesses target the best places in the country to recruit skilled workers.
The study will identify what skills are in highest demand in the city; where in Canada there are higher numbers of people with those skills who are unemployed or underemployed; and which areas people have traditionally come to Prince George from, Initiatives Prince George CEO Heather Oland said.
"The best case outcome is we find five-six areas in Canada that have the skilled workers local employers need," Oland said. "We're not going to find all the occupations in once place."
Initiatives Prince George has contracted R.A. Malatest & Associates Ltd. to do the research and prepare a report by the spring . The report, funded by a $45,000 grant from the provincial government's Partnership and Innovation Fund, will be available to the public.
The report will allow businesses to work together to target their recruitment efforts on areas with the highest chances to success, Oland said.
"It'll allow us to be strategic," she said. "We'll be partnering with business and industry to go into a market [to recruit]. We tell businesses it's our job to sell the city... it's their job to sell themselves as a place to work."
B.C. is expected have a shortage of 350,000 skilled workers by 2020, according to information released by Initiatives Prince George.
"The tremendous investments happening now in B.C.'s economy are going to place a huge demand on our human resources, particularly in the north," said Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training Shirley Bond said in a written statement. "Confronting this challenge requires the best labour information we can possibly get in order to understand where the demand for skilled workers is highest and how we can attract the best and brightest to Prince George."
