Sprott Shaw triples capacity for electrician training, says demand is surging
Posted April 14, 2015 11:05 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BURNABY (NEWS1130) – A local private college is more than tripling its capacity to train electricians to work of projects from condos to pipelines.
Sprott Shaw President Patrick Dang says there will be “a shortage of trade skills in epic proportions” as projects pop up and baby boomers retire.
“We looked at this as an ideal platform for students to get relative skills to support meaningful jobs and stay employed for the next two decades or longer,” he tells us.
Dang tells us growth in the demand for construction electricians is “far exceeding” the number of people entering the field, for several reasons, “construction at its current pace, and also the new LNG and gas pipeline projects.”
Sprott Shaw has moved its electrician program from Coquitlam to a larger facility in Burnaby, where capacity can rise from the current 65 to as many as 200.
Dang says almost all its students are employed within six to eight weeks of graduating. The program has four levels of training and costs as much as $15,000 but assistance is available from the province’s industrial training authority.
