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Ministry of Advanced Education

SkillsPlusSkillsPlus is a government initiative to enable British Columbians to gain essential skills demanded by today's workplace. Funding provided through the Canada-British Columbia Labour Market Agreement

Overview

Through SkillsPlus, small and mid-sized businesses can enhance the foundation skills of current employees, improving productivity and reducing costs. The program is designed to assist employers, in providing foundation skills development for their employees by integrating essential skills into workplace training [PDF]. These skills – reading text, document use, numeracy, writing, oral communication, working with others, continuous learning, thinking skills and computer use – can  help employees deal with more complex tasks and make them more effective in the workplace. SkillsPlus supports the development and delivery of customized, effective curriculum and assessment tools to meet the human resources training needs of British Columbia’s small and mid-sized businesses.

What would you like to achieve through Essential Skills training? Here are some of the positive outcomes associated with improved workplace skills:

  • Improved productivity
  • Reduced errors
  • Improved customer service
  • Empowered employees
  • Improved communication and/or teamwork
  • Improved safety
  • Reduced absenteeism and/or turnover
  • Improved succession planning
  • Improved ability to implement change in the workplace

Current SkillsPlus Projects

In the 2011/12 project year, nine SkillsPlus projects have been funded, with delivery spanning four economic development regions across the province – Vancouver Island/Coast, Lower Mainland/Southwest, Cariboo and Northeast. View the complete listing of projects in regions across the province.

History

Since its inception, and prior to this year's investment, approximately $4 million has been allocated to SkillsPlus projects resulting in essential skills training being delivered to approximately 900 employees of small-to-medium sized businesses throughout the province. Previous SkillsPlus projects have delivered essential skills training in the following sectors: tourism and hospitality; retail, wholesale and grocery; health services; construction; social housing; security; manufacturing; forestry; and mining.

SkillsPlus has also completed a series of essential skills studies for various sectors: construction, forestry, health care, mining, petroleum, retail/wholesale/grocery, tourism hospitality, small business and Aboriginal workers. While the program is not restricted to these sectors, the reports provide a useful overview of skill levels and increasing skills challenges in a number of industries.

To view the summaries of the SkillsPlus Phase I reports, please see the links below:

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