Flexible higher education offerings could help close BC’s skills gap: Opinion

British Columbia Institute of Technology Interim President Paul McCullough has penned an editorial for the Vancouver Sun highlighting how postsecondary institutions are offering flexible learning to address British Columbia’s skills gap. McCullough writes that as employers are struggling to find and keep skilled workers due to the pandemic and inflation, job seekers are re-evaluating their career paths and rethinking how they want to invest in postsecondary. With employees now seen as the number one stakeholder in organizations and businesses, it has become essential for employers, governments, and job trainers to more closely collaborate in support of employee talent development. McCullough discusses the recent trend in launching flexible learning options that allow people to up-skill and re-skill quickly, concluding that these kinds of pathways can help to reduce barriers to education and more efficiently train workers to meet labour needs.