Adrian Dix hits the Okanagan

Video shows Adrian Dix in Summerland.

BC NDP leader Adrian Dix said change for the better means increasing spaces for co-op education to support local businesses, expand skills training opportunities for students and promote job creation.

Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

BC NDP leader Adrian Dix and BC NDP candidate Richard Cannings take a walk in Summerland

“A BC NDP government will invest $13 million to expand co-op positions for BC students,” said Dix. “Over two years, this will help provide an estimated 6,500 young people with the skills necessary for the jobs of tomorrow and address the growing skills shortage in our economy. That’s change for the better.”

Dix said that the BCNDP co-op program will expand the BC Training Tax Credit to target small- and medium-sized businesses. It will also include a new wage-subsidy program for BC non-profits that hire co-op students, similar to the successful Canada Summer Jobs program.

“More of the same means a BC Liberal government spending $17 million on partisan advertising that claims they are investing in skills training, when they are actually cutting funding for training and post-secondary education,” said Dix.

Students at UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College, along with 16 other colleges, universities and institutes with co-operative education programs, will be eligible to participate in the program. Last year, more than 10,000 students completed (while being paid) four-month co-op terms as part of their post-secondary education.

“Over the past two years, hundreds of business people have told me they cannot find the skilled workers they need to take advantage of opportunities to grow and prosper. We have to address this challenge or we will end up with jobs without people and people without jobs, increasing the already unacceptable levels of inequality in BC.”