Association for British Columbia Marine Industries print

5 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 4 to choosing an interesting and fulfilling career where you can make a good salary and have great job security.” Technology specialists are in need of the industrial marine industry as well to keep up with the ever-changing evolution of high- tech machinery and sector tools. The marine industry is reinventing the traditional means of shipbuilding and manufacturing into a seascape of opportunities with advanced technologies forming and shaping a new digitized sector. Technology is embedded in most systems on ships, and electronic engineers are the type of professional that is needed to help design new systems now and in the future. ABCMI works with the marine sector in British Columbia in outreach activities to support the labor shortage, Rueben says. For example, it works closely with universities like the University of Victoria to promote careers in the industry, while creating videos for younger school children to watch in their classrooms which permanently enhance the development of stable, satisfying, and desirable careers within British Columbia’s industrial marine sector. Attracting and recruiting new talent into the sector is an ongoing objective given the potential worker shortage the industry will face in the coming years. A sizable percentage of today’s aging workforce will be retiring. As a result, ABCMI’s website has a job board that often includes more than 1, 000 open jobs at any given point. Part of the focus on workforce development is to increase the diversity of professionals working in the industry, including more women, Indigenous People, and persons of color. Recruiting young people to understand the abilities and opportunities of working in the sector continues. That’s important because Indigenous People used maritime skills as part of their daily lives which have always been an essential component of British Columbia’s history. Says Rueben, “you have so many paths