N.B. Addresses Labour Shortage With Classrooms On The Shop Floor
Over the next decade, about 120,000 New Brunswickers will retire from the workforce, putting tremendous pressure on the province’s labour market. Although the Baby Boomer exodus hasn’t yet hit its peak, it has already begun. Across New Brunswick, many industries are already challenged to find enough qualified workers.
Charlie Guest is the Plant Manager at BWS Manufacturing, a semi-trailer manufacturer, located in Centreville NB. BWS has about 150 employees, many of them tradespeople.
“It’s a constant struggle to find enough welders to keep up with demand,” says Guest. “If someone sends me a resume and they’ve got just a little bit of welding experience, or even if they have no welding experience but they have the will to learn, we’ll hire them.”
To deal with the ongoing staff challenges, BWS partnered with WorkingNB, ONB and NBCC on an innovative new program that both helps the shop address its labour shortage and offers new training opportunities to New Brunswickers.
For about a year, BWS has been running an NBCC-accredited welding program directly out of its facility. The program is led by a qualified NBCC instructor and offers students a 12-week welding course that includes hands-on experience on BWS’s shop floor. The program yields about a dozen grads every three months and Guest says they are pleased to have the opportunity to hire a large portion from each graduating class.
“WorkingNB, as well as ONB and NBCC, were “instrumental” in making the program happen. I’m not saying anything was easy, but because of the level of commitment and the behind-the-scenes work that they would have done for us, it appeared very smooth and easy,” says Guest, commending their efforts.
He talks with enthusiasm about his main contact at WorkingNB, whom Guest says is an incredible resource—on this project and beyond.
“His title is Workforce Consultant, but I look at him as just being able to call him and ask about any questions we have,” Guest says. “I’ve had someone ask me about careers—what’s out there, what education or what programs are there—and I’ve even called Michael and asked him that, for my neighbor, and he’s been happy to help.”
The province’s Minister of Post-Secondary Education, Training, and Labour, Trevor Holder, says that’s exactly how the new Working NB department is supposed to operate. Last year, the province overhauled its job development office to be more nimble, effective, and better able to respond to modern challenges facing New Brunswick’s labour market.
“It’s a complete modernization of the way we do business,” Holder says.
Gone is the old model, built around the 1970s problem of extra-high unemployment, that often meant trying to wedge communities, businesses, and employees into specific categories so they qualified for one program or another. Holder points out that the province has “the exact opposite problem” today than it did decades ago.
The challenges and opportunities New Brunswick have in front of it now are completely different than they were 10, 20, or 30 years ago,” Holder says. “We have significant labour demands, and they’re growing. And we have a population that needs to grow on top of that.”
That means the agency needs to be more flexible. So that’s what the new WorkingNB is.
All the old, criteria-based programs have been scrapped in favor of one big program that can adapt to New Brunswickers’ needs, whatever they end up being.
“What works in Saint-Antoine might not be what works in St. George,” Holder says. “And what works in Saint-Antoine today might not be what works there in two years.”
Working NB has 19 offices spread out across the province. Holder says he wants them to be the place New Brunswickers go when something’s not working for them.
“If they’re not working, if their business isn’t working, or workforce solutions for their community aren’t working, I want them to go to WorkingNB,” he says. “It’s not just simply a place where you go if you’re unemployed – it’s bigger than that.”
Holder reiterates that over the next 8-10 years 120,000 New Brunswickers will retire from the workforce. Working NB’s ultimate goal is to meet the demands that exodus will cause. Whether that’s partnerships with companies like BWS, research into how to attract and retain newcomers to the province, or simply matching a young person to a career that best suits them, the new WorkingNB is designed to make that happen.
“It’s about making sure our communities work, our businesses work, our people are working, and overall New Brunswick is working,” Holder says.
This story was sponsored by the New Brunswick Department of Post-Secondary Education Training and Labour.