The Skills Centre in Trail won’t be housing the Work BC program as of April 1. The provincial government didn’t renew its contract with them and the program will be taken over by Kootenay Career Development Society. The Skills Centre has had the Work BC contract for the last 20 years and Executive Director, Morag Carter, says there was a suspicion that things would change this year. One indicator was that the catchment area for the program was expanded to include Midway, Grand Forks and Castlegar.
Carter says this will mean a significant shift in their programming. There have been a few ideas in the works that the Centre will focus on now.
“There’s some work force development work that we’ve been planning so we’ve been developing some new programs for youth, for women, for our Indigenous residents here in the greater Trail area.”
Carter says one of the goals was to fill in some gaps that were left by the Work BC programs. Another project they’ve been undertaking is the expansion of their child care services.
“On our website, there is a piece of research we did last year looking at whether or not extending our child care, day care, was needed in the area, and it is.”
This includes the idea of implementing 24-hour service as they found there are many shift workers in the area. Some of the costing details are still being looked at.
To learn more about the Skills Centre, click here.