The number one challenge facing New Brunswick employers today is accessing and retaining appropriately skilled labour in a timely and cost effective manner. Global pressures on competition for skilled labour combined with an aging provincial workforce and a stagnant provincial population growth rate reinforce that we must work together to develop an effective workforce expansion strategy. This approach must holistic, innovative, and collaborative to ensure our citizens, our community and our province benefit from the best outcomes possible. With this in mind, a proactive philosophy for advancing provincial self sufficiency was introduced in April 2008 by the provincial government called the Benefits Blueprint. The Blueprint called for governments, agencies, and communities to act to optimize the economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits resulting from the investments in major capital projects such as the PCS Piccadilly Potash Mine and a second potential nuclear reactor at Point Lepreau. The report identified needs in seven key focus areas and proposed recommendations for further review and consideration; with the plan that various agencies in the community would champion each focus area. A skilled and available workforce was identified as one of those key focus areas and was one of the first initiatives to receive a committed Champion; Enterprise Saint John. Enterprise Saint John (ESJ) is dedicated to creating the environment for prosperity in the Saint John community by inspiring people, ideas and investment. As a result, the Workforce Expansion Initiative (WEI) was incubated by ESJ with the mandate to develop and deliver a provincial workforce strategy to fulfill the labour requirements for the Energy and Advanced Manufacturing Sector as well as Enterprise Saint John’s other identified growth sectors of Tourism, ICT and Health Sciences. Workforce Development is now the organization’s top priority and the Workforce Expansion Initiative is taking the lead to assist NB employers to access a workforce with right skills at the right time. (Our Mandate) |
