April 30, 2008

Employment Initiative

Construction and tourism team up in British Columbia

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

The British Columbia Construction Association (BCCA) and the B.C. tourism industry’s human resources association, go2, have launched a joint initiative to recruit workers from other provinces and countries.

“The BCCA sources people in the construction industry and go2 will handle non-construction employment placement,” said Manley McLachlan, BCCA president during the signing of the MOU. “We can pool our resources and cover a wider range of events. We will represent our partner at events and cover more territory.”

Both the BCCA and go2 recruit employees from other parts of Canada and overseas. For this reason, the strategic alliance will allow them to work together to promote employment opportunities in B.C.

The alliance was formalized with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on April 24.

The BCCA runs a program called EU-Step that assists members understand the immigration process and hire skilled trades people from Europe, as well as Central and South America.

Since the program was established in 2006, the BCCA has attended international job fairs and helped to bring about 150 skilled workers to British Columbia, under the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).

The BCCA is also involved with a B.C. government initiative to recruit skilled workers from Ontario.

Go2 is a Vancouver-based human resource association that helps employers in B.C.’s tourist industry recruit, retain and train employees.

In this capacity, the company assists employers to hire workers from other provinces and attends job fairs.

They also recruit employees from outside Canada using the PNP.

Earlier this year, go2 and the BCCA were competing against each other at a B.C. government job fair in Ontario.

In contrast to this approach, the understanding outlines an alliance in which both organizations collaborate on career awareness initiatives and encourage families to move to B.C.

“Rather than competing, we have decided to work together. The construction and tourism sector represent a large part of the B.C. economy,” said Arlene Keis, go2 CEO. “We will both assist families (to) make the transition to permanent employment in Canada.”

This business objective will be achieved through joint marketing programs and by working together to recruit for jobs in both sectors.

The groups agree that a family approach is the best way to attract workers from other provinces and countries.

“When a worker wants to come to Canada and a job offer is made, the candidates ask questions about how to link their spouse or kids with a job offer,” McLachlan explained.

“We want the move to be permanent, so it is important to provide support and opportunity for the whole family.”

The alliance will also target hard-to-fill jobs, such as rural or seasonal employment.

“If families are working in suitable jobs they will put down roots here, bringing much-needed stability to our respective industries and our economy,” Keis said.

The program is also intended to help facilitate more two-income families to make it easier to live in a high-cost area such as Metro Vancouver.

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