News

  • June 29, 2010 8:00 AM | BCPLAN (Administrator)

    The Industry Training Authority (ITA) is involved with the Canadian Council of Directors of Apprenticeship (CCDA) in an exciting project called “Strengthening the Red Seal.”

    This is a Pan Canadian effort to develop a method for documenting occupational performance standards for skilled trades, which will result in enhanced ability to use multiple forms of assessment to determine the level of skill and knowledge a candidate brings to the table when seeking training or certification.

    Watch the video on the Strengthening the Red Seal website


  • June 11, 2010 9:30 AM | BCPLAN (Administrator)

    During the (BC)PLAN Summit 2010, nine presenters showcased successful Prior Learning Assessment & Recognition (PLAR) partnerships currently taking place in BC. (BC)PLAN participants were asked to identify the “Best Practices” principles at work in these thriving partnerships. The following list summarizes their observations.

    Click here to view the full Best Practice Principles Summary


  • May 26, 2010 12:00 PM | BCPLAN (Administrator)

    On Monday, May 11, 2010, Susan Brown, Jan Carrie, Devron Gaber, Judy Harris (Co-Chair), Linda Long, Norma Strachan, Brian Train, Wendy Watson (Co-Chair), and Christine Wihak met to discuss the following items:

    1. A communications strategy for BCPLAN
    2. Incorporation into a society
    3. Membership
    4. Funding Application – LMP

    1. Communication Strategy: The group discussed the BCPLAN communication strategy proposal, written by Chris Brown, BCPLAN Web Developer, which highlighted how the website can support engagement and help to build a community.

    2. Incorporation: The group agreed to move ahead with revising and finalizing bylaws in order to apply for not-for-profit status this summer.

    3. Membership: The group discussed possible categories of membership and resolved to seek consultation on this from the broader group. The importance to be clear with members what they will receive in return for their membership fees was also brought forward. The fee structure is TBD and will be discussed at future meetings.

    4. Funding Application – LMP: The group decided to move forward with an application to the Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development’s (ALMD) Labour Market Partnership (LMP) fund. Once BCPLAN is incorporated it will be eligible to apply for this funding. Once a draft application is completed it will be sent to board members for wider consultation before it is submitted to ALMD.


  • May 20, 2010 2:00 PM | BCPLAN (Administrator)

    A new study finds evaluating learning from life experience and work for academic credit significantly contributes to students’ progress toward a degree.

    Click here to view the full release


  • May 19, 2010 11:30 AM | BCPLAN (Administrator)

    We would like to thank everyone who participated at the inaugural  (BC)PLAN Summit for making it a huge success!

    We wish to acknowledge the following people who have pledged to assist the interim board as steps are taken to certify BCPLAN as a non-profit society!

    Clifford Bell,
    Director of Employment Services
    Immigrant Services Society of BC (ISSBC)

    Satbir Cheema
    Director, Employment Programs
    Progressive Intercultural Services Society (PICS) UFCW Local 247
    Training & Education Society

    Diana Christie
    Associate Registrar
    Justice Institute

    John Dawson
    Director, Employment & Community Development,
    Mennonite Central Committee BC

    Mary Kenny
    CEO, Residential Construction Industry Training Organization

    Lil McPhail
    PLAR Coordinator,
    College of the Rockies

    AnnMarie Merkel
    Instructor,
    Northwest Community College

    Dave O’Leary
    Chief Information Officer and Board Member
    Northwest Community College and Information Communications Technology Council (Sector Council)

    Stu Seifert
    Provincial Executive
    Education, Scientific, Technical and Administrative Component (7)

    Thomas Tam
    Chief Operating Officer,
    S.U.C.C.E.S.S BC


  • December 17, 2009 3:30 PM | BCPLAN (Administrator)

    Thompson Rivers University (TRU) through its Open Learning (OL) Division, has launched an initiative to develop a new Prior Learning International Research Centre (PLIRC). The vision for the Centre, which is helmed by Dr. Christine Wihak, Director of Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) at TRU-OL, is to stimulate innovative and provocative research concerning prior learning and the theory, policy and practice of its assessment and/or recognition and/or validation. “PLAR lies at the intersection of research on workplace, learning and society,” Dr. Wihak said, in recognition of the importance of the new centre.

    visit PLIRC website


  • December 17, 2009 1:30 PM | BCPLAN (Administrator)

    The ECE Assessment Service was developed to assist Candidates in their claim for professional competency as Early Childhood Educators and to acquire a license to practice in BC. Mentor/Assessors asses learning that has been acquired in non-traditional and traditional, non-formal and formal settings.

    Candidates work at their own pace to create a portfolio to identify learning that meets contemporary professional standards and levels of competency for their field of practice.

    Watch Kathy Price (Douglas College) and Cathy Sales (St. Barnabas Day Care) present at BCPLAN SUMMIT 2010.

    View the program details on the Douglas website


  • December 17, 2009 10:00 AM | BCPLAN (Administrator)

    An educational partnership will enable RCMP and other police officers to better meet the needs of their communities. An agreement signed at the Pacific Region Training Centre in Chilliwack will make it possible for police officers to combine their previous post-secondary education, in-service training, and new university studies at UCFV to complete a Bachelor of General Studies in Policing.

    view the program

  • December 17, 2009 10:00 AM | BCPLAN (Administrator)

    Atlantic Institute for Market Studies
    January 2009

    read full article here

    Executive Summary: Sometime toward the middle of the next decade, and for the first time in at least a century, the number of people willing and available to work in Canada will be smaller than the number of jobs
    potentially available for them. After that point in time, a general labour shortage — not just in specific geographic areas or for particular skilled trades, but throughout the economy and in all
    provinces — will become a normal fact of Canadian economic life that will continue for as far ahead as demographers are able to forecast. There will still be unemployed people, but their numbers
    will be more than offset by unfilled job vacancies. Simply put, the number of young people entering the labour force is insufficient to sustain economic growth in the years ahead at levels that
    prevail today.
    The problem Canada faces is one of demographics. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Canadian economy was restructured to meet the challenge of the entry of the huge baby boomer generation into the
    employed labour force. With the demographic changes that have taken place since then — a declining fertility rate and declining numbers of future labour force entrants — this design is no
    longer working. Indeed, continuing to adhere to it threatens Canadians’ standard of living, and could lead to unrest, outmigration, and slow-to-nonexistent economic growth coupled with high
    inflation. Modelling the effects of these demographic shifts on the Nova Scotia economy and society out to 2026 shows that they are likely to be significant, featuring an aging, declining population,
    dwindling numbers in the traditional labour force ages (15–65), and lower labour force participation rates.
    If Canada were facing this demographic challenge in isolation, it might be easier to adapt to the situation. But most of the developed world faces similar challenges. The coming decades will
    witness a global competition among the developed countries for labour of all kinds, and the problem will only get worse as workforces in rapidly developing countries such as China begin to age.
    There are only three generic ways to close the gap between the demand for and supply of labour in Nova Scotia in the years ahead:
    • Find more people — that is, increase the population, by raising the birth rate or by increasing migration from other provinces and immigration from abroad. But the birth rate is unlikely to
    change, other parts of Canada would be facing the same challenge, and immigration from abroad would have to occur at far beyond traditional levels.

    • Increase labour productivity at a faster rate than the historical average, by encouraging the growth of higher-paying industries at the expense of low-productivity (largely low-wage)
    industries, improving business practices and processes, and increasing the skills and education levels of the workforce. But this would only delay the inevitable.
    • Increase the labour force participation rate, by encouraging those who have given up working  or who have never worked to become employed or by discouraging early retirement and
    encouraging older workers to remain in the labour force longer — no easy task.

    A mixture of these approaches might be more practical, but it would involve a rethinking of government policies related not only to work and the workforce, but also to education, certification,
    pensions, pay practices, benefits, and capital investment, among others. It would also imply changes in business attitudes toward older workers, the disabled, visible-minority hiring, productivity
    improvements, work practices, and the deliberate offshoring of low-productivity and lowpaying operations, among other things.
    What is clear, however, is that Canada, and Nova Scotia, cannot afford to do nothing. If nothing changes, in 2026 one job in every eight in Nova Scotia and in the rest of Canada will go begging.
    In that case, the market, as it is presently conditioned by business and government, will definitely “solve” the problem for us, but not, perhaps, in a way we might like.

    read full article here

  • December 17, 2009 9:30 AM | BCPLAN (Administrator)

    One major project which has just been funded by the Immigrant Integration Branch, Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development, is the Tri Cities Welcoming and Inclusive Community and Workplace Demonstration Project (WICWP). The project will place 15 to 18 foreign trained human services professionals in community agencies for a work experience and perhaps future employment. This initiative was developed by the Tri Cities Planning Group, which is a committee that collaborates to meet the needs of children, youth and families in the Tri Cities. They have been working together for the past four years and membership consists of Executive Director’s of community agencies, a MCFD manager along with Jan Carrie and Gary Tennant as Dean’s of Child, Family and Community Studies.

    The lead agency on the WICWP is SUCCESS, a large multicultural agency. Douglas will house the project at David Lam and provide research and evaluation through the Centre for Health and Community Partnerships. CFCS and EASL will team up to deliver the classroom components.  CFCS will also introduce participants to the service learning component and liaison with community agencies who will mentor participants.

    There are three primary activities within this project:
    1. Organization Dialogue on Integration;
    2. Training and Placement; and
    3. Evaluation and Monitoring, and Development of a Model for Welcoming and Inclusive Community
    and Workplace.

    This project demonstrates an excellent model of a community collaboration which will support the integration of new immigrants into the community, recognize their experience outside of Canada  and address work force shortages in the social service sector.

    Watch Sharon Goldberg (SUCCESS BC), Geri Patterson (Douglas College), and Kathy Bell (Douglas College) present the initiative at BCPLAN SUMMIT 2010.


BC Prior Learning Action Network
Email Address: info@bcplan.ca
Mailing Address: 300 - 722 Cormorant Street Victoria BC V8W 1P8

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