A marine simulator at BCIT's marine campus. (Photo courtesy of BCIT)

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VANCOUVER (CUP) — In light of last month's federal announcement of $8 billion in shipbuilding contracts coming to British Columbia, schools in the area are gearing up to fill the skills gap.

Technical colleges — such as Burnaby’s British Columbia Institute of Technology and Camosun College in Victoria — are expecting an increased demand for workers in fields as varied as welding, millwrighting, project management and occupational health therapy.

“The government estimates that there will be 4,000 spin-off jobs. And that means these people will have to be trained and most likely they're going to be trained at places like Camosun, places like BCIT,” said Dave Pinton, media relations manager for BCIT.

“We have apprentices that are training here now. In fact, a couple of them happen to be with Seaspan, and I heard one of them say the other day, ‘I think I can buy a house soon.’ So they’re pretty excited about it and it means there’s going to be opportunities for literally the next 20 to 30 years.”

Seaspan Marine’s Vancouver yard won the smaller of two contracts, while Irving Shipyards in Halifax was awarded the $25-billion military vessels contract.

According to Pinton, all six of BCIT’s schools, including business, transportation and health sciences, will be affected by the shipbuilding contracts.

“I think people lose sight of the fact that it’s definitely going to affect a lot of different sectors, probably in ways that we don’t think about yet,” he said.

Tom Roemer, vice-president of strategic development for Camosun College, said graduates will be impacted heavily given that these 30-year contracts will mean lifetime employment for many students.

Roemer said that Camosun is planning to expand capacity by up to 50 per cent in many of their trade programs, while also looking at tailoring some of their current programs — like the one for industrial electricians — towards a marine setting.

He also said business programs, such as supply chain management, will also likely require expansion.

Roemer believes that the shipbuilding jobs will pay wages that are competitive with those doled out in places like Fort McMurray, Alberta or northeastern B.C., with many being paid in the six figures after a few years.

Camosun will be meeting in early December with the Department of National Defence to discuss on what types of training the college should focus.

Naval architecture

Alongside a huge boom in the trades, engineers studying the field of marine architecture will also likely see a boost to job prospects.

“There will be significant amount of design work to be done on these vessels and on the production of them as well, so there will be a need for engineers,” said Jon Mikkelsen, a senior instructor in UBC’s faculty of applied sciences.

“I’ll forecast it’ll at least triple or quadruple from what it is now.”

UBC offers a few courses in naval architecture as part of the mechanical engineering program. He said these courses usually have six to eight students in them.

The only full naval architecture program in all of Canada is at Memorial University in St. John’s, N.L. And although many elite American universities, such as MIT and UC Berkeley, once offered naval architecture degrees, these have largely disappeared as the industry moved from North America to Asia.

Every year, a handful of UBC students who take these courses end up working in marine design at local companies such as Robert Allan Ltd. and STX Canada Marine. Others end up designing yachts in California, working for Canada Steamships in Ontario or else go overseas to places like the UK and Norway.

Mikkelsen said that UBC is currently working with Seaspan on the possibility of creating a master’s of engineering degree in marine system design, although this is far from being finalized.

He went on to say that his students were very excited about the contracts.

“It’s a real shot in the arm for the whole west coast marine industry, so everyone’s excited about that.”

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