July 10, 2007

Labour Shortage

Web site makeover aims to attract aboriginals to industry

CSC looks to build future workforce

Terry Tinkess

correspondent

The Construction Sector Council is hopeful a refurbished construction careers Web site will convince more aboriginal youth to pursue careers in the construction industry.

“One of the simple things that we have done that will be a helpful tool for us is that we have taken our construction careers portal and we have refurbished it to address an Aboriginal audience,” says Rosemary Sparks, senior director of planning and development. “We have incorporated stories and profiles about aboriginal trades people.”

The Web site will also contain information about projects that are currently happening where there is significant aboriginal participation as well as information about the various trades across the country.

“We’re really trying to make this a completely aboriginal-friendly source of information that we will be making available, of course to everyone, but more importantly to people who work more directly with the aboriginal population in respect to employment counseling, career opportunities, etc,” says Sparks.

“It is an amazing information source for the aboriginal community to give them a sense of what the career possibilities are in construction.”

Included on the Web site will be labour market information for the various trades to allow anyone considering a career in construction to see what opportunities exist and where they could exist going forward.

The site tries to provide more than numbers, according to Sparks.

“We talk about what the workplace looks like, the working condition, what skills are required, how you get into an apprenticeship, the length of the program, all of the pertinent details.

“There is a little bit of information on salaries, and we try to give that as broad a range as possible so that we have covered all the possibilities within that range of salaries.

“We show it as an hourly wage and also show what that would translate into on a yearly basis.”

As Canada faces an impending shortage of skilled trades, aboriginal peoples along with women are seen as two partial solutions.

Both groups are significantly underrepresented within the construction industry.

“To reach the aboriginal group it’s very important that we put a face to it that they can identify with, that they have role models,” says Sparks.

The site is currently undergoing the final stages of preparation and will be launched in the near future.

CSC will be sending out an announcement when the site actually goes live.

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