Part of the Cortes Community Economic Development Association (CCEDA) mandate is assisting people who need employment skills training. They were looking for ways to do this when the StrongerBC Skills Training Grants became available. While this is not a CCEDA program, it achieves their objectives and Kate Maddigan, CCEDA’s Economic Development Officer, has been promoting this program for the past month.

According to the provincial government website, the grant will pay for  up to $3,500 in eligible short term skills training at public post secondary institutions.  

“It has generated a bit of interest. People stop me on the street to say, ‘Oh, yeah,  I saw your post about that grant and I really want to try to apply for this or that.’ People have been emailing me. There was someone interested in applying for  bookkeeping. A couple of people were interested in the building design and architectural CAD course. There was someone interested in website management,” explained Maddigan.

“I’m working with the North Island Employment Foundations Society, in Campbell River, to try and make sure that people know about these and  get some initiatives off the ground.”

“There are over 400 courses to choose from and this grant will cover the entire cost of the course. Most of them are online, which is great for people on Cortes.” 

“You can get a bookkeeping certificate or instruction in general business management, Indigenous early childhood education, marine navigation skills courses, digital marketing, website management skills, a prep for air brakes certification, mapping with drones, or principles of ecosystem stewardship. There’s another one on climate action and community engagement.” 

“I personally tried signing up for marketing in the digital economy.  It was actually a pretty easy process. I got approved for the grant, was enrolled and then I realized that ‘Oh my God, this is way more of a time commitment that I could handle at the time, so I dropped out of it  before it started.” 

“Courses are probably filling up. You have another five or six weeks before these courses start. So I really strongly recommend  if you’re even just thinking about it, make sure you start looking into it right away.”

CC: Do these grants include support for people who would have to leave the island to take courses? 

KM: “I am 95% sure that this money only goes for tuition. I don’t think it provides any support for travel expenses and so on. Having said that, there’s a program for almost anything. I’m not sure if there’s other programs to support people who want to attend  a course in person, but it doesn’t hurt to look around.  I’m happy to do that for somebody if they want to attend a course in person and not an online course.”

CC: Have you heard of anyone who’s actually applied and got a response yet?

KM: “I did it personally. It was really easy, but that was with North Island College.” 

“There was someone looking into a Camosun College course, and they found that there was a little bit more to it, but they were working with a different form to fill out.” 

“It really is different for every single institution that you attempt to register with.” 

You can look at these courses through a provincial government website called EducationPlannerBC. The web address is https://www.educationplannerbc.ca/plan/finance/future-skills-grant

KM: “There’s probably 30 or more institutions. There’s a drop down menu for each institution. You just need to look through all of those courses, decide which one you want to apply to.  

KM: “There’s a link, you click on it, it takes you to  the college or university that is providing the course, and then you just go from there.”

KM: “Everyone’s got a different way of registering for courses under this grant.”

“The really nice thing about the Stronger BC Future Skills Grant is that it’s open to pretty much everybody over 19 years of age. 

Top image credit: Get a better handle on using drones – Photo by Dose Media on Unsplash

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