Survey will say…

On Friday, The Daily News completed its week of almost non stop Community Futures stories, with an article about the upcoming workforce survey to determine if Prince Rupert is ready to boom.

And while it certainly is worth trumpeting the achievements of the local office and highlighting its plans for the future, you have to wonder if maybe there aren’t one or two stories in the city missing out on some valuable newsprint.

It seems that not a day went by this week without mention of the happenings of the 3rd Avenue economic development office (well ok Thursday was Futures free) including a bio on the General Manager.

The week wrapped up exactly where it began, providing a bit more information about that now well promoted Skills survey about to be conducted by the folks at Community Futures of the Pacific Northwest.

Now that’s what one calls a news cycle…

EXPERTS FIGURING OUT IF CITY’S WORKFORCE IS READY FOR BOOM
Huge survey will look at whether workers have the skills they will need
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, October 27, 2006
Pages one and two

A massive workforce skills assessment is underway in the Northwest, the likes of which has never been done before.

And Community Futures of the Pacific Northwest is hoping people both employed and unemployed will take the 15 minutes required to participate in the analysis of the existing workforce.

”The more we know about the strengths and weakness of our current workforce and existing jobs, the better prepared we will be to tackle the future,” said Maynard Angus, general manager of Community Futures of the Pacific Northwest.

Called the Pacific Northwest Gateway Skills initiative, the project will assess what jobs are out there now, which skills those jobs require, which jobs may be coming in the community in the future, and the skill sets those jobs require.

Understanding the size, availability and skills of the local workforce, whether employed or unemployed, will be critical in predicting how effectively Prince Rupert will be able to take advantage of new jobs and business opportunities that will created with the opening of the container port and other developments on the horizon.

Information will be gathered through interviews with representatives from industry, labour and the business community.

However, in addition to identifying skills needed by industry and the business community, the Pacific Northwest Gateways Skills Initiative will also be compiling an inventory of existing workforce skills, based on information gathered from telephone interviews and questionnaires.

Each interview takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete and Community Futures is hopeful that when people are asked to participate, the public will contribute their time.

“This is an important survey, and we need as many people to participate as possible,” said Angus. “The more people we can interview, the more accurately we will be able to identify existing skills needs and the training required to prepare for future job opportunities.”

A number of agencies in town are involved with organizing interviews through their own membership networks. The Career Resource Centre, Hecate Strait Employment Development Society, the Friendship House, Gitmaxmak’ay Nisga’a Society and the North Coast Transition Society are all helping deliver the survey. Students from Northwest Community College have also volunteered to conduct one on one interviews and will be out in the community asking people to sign up for a phone interview.

The skills assessment areas covers the eight communities in the Community Futures Pacific Northwest Region, including Prince Rupert, Port Edward, Oona River, Dodge Cove, Lax Kw’alaams, Metlakatla, Hartley Bay and Kitkatla.

Data collectors have also been hired in Hartley Bay, Kitkatla and Lax Kw’alaams and will be going door to door to collect information.

To participate in the Workforce Skills Initiative, please contact Community Futures at 622-2332 or 1-877-622-8288.