“Building Builders” coming in August

PRINCE GEORGE – In the next four years, the BC Construction Association is anticipating there will be more than 27 thousand anticipated job openings in the construction sector alone. It’s why the construction association is launching a new program next month called “Building Builders,” which is about creating better access to mentors.

“Most trades, especially the more traditional trades, the journeyperson relationship has always been more of a mentor-mentee-like relationship,” explains Cindy Lalonde, Project Manager for the Building Builders Program. “But it’s not formalized. And so the issue is, we have to provide some structure to that relationship that’s always existed.”

And the program needs connections to those mentors through the various regional trade organizations, like the Northern Regional Construction Association. And the aim is to target the under-represented demographics, particularly, the younger population. With the retirements and labour shortages hitting every industry, not just construction, the challenge is to connect the mentees with mentors.