0:00:02.4 [BRIDGITTE]: Welcome back to GVPOD, Greater Vancouver's business podcast. I'm Bridgitte Anderson, President and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. We're continuing our series on labour, sponsored by the British Columbia Institute of Technology - education for a complex world. Businesses in Metro Vancouver say that one of their biggest challenges is attracting, recruiting and retaining talent, and it's no surprise, B.C. has over 150,000 existing job vacancies and a projected 700,000 people are set to retire in the next decade. Today we're joined by Kenton Low, Dean of the School of Business and Media at B.C., to talk about how BCIT is working with industry and stakeholders to develop the workforce of today and tomorrow. Welcome, Kenton.

0:00:53.4 [KENTON]: Thanks for having me, Bridgitte.

0:00:55.4 [BRIDGITTE]: Back in February, we released a report called “Solving BCs Workforce Challenges, it outlines 65 recommendations to address the labor challenges that we're gonna talk about today, and really those recommendations cover some immediate kind of steps that governments can take and also long-term measures, one of the main themes of the report is rethinking the post-secondary system to be more aligned with industry needs, so maybe a good starting point Kenton is for you to tell us about your background, because you really bridge both the business world and the academic world, so maybe talk about that and just how it shaped your perspective as we're talking about developing a workforce.

0:01:38.0 [KENTON]: Yes, certainly can there. So from a background standpoint, I do come from industries, I'm not a Dean that has worked my way up through academia, I've got 30 plus years of work experience at ranges from entrepreneur ventures to the Fortune 50, most of admired companies in the world, and I've had the good fortune of working in different industries as well too, so in addition to education, like consumer packaged goods, like entertainment and media, industrial equipment, interior finishing and financial services, so that background in industry has really helped to shape how I think about education and how we develop our learners to go out there and be the workforce of tomorrow. It also was shaped by the companies I have the good fortune of working for as well too, most of my working career early on was in California, so for many years for Nestle USA, and then had the good fortune of working for the Walt Disney Company and also a Universal Studio. So very much framed up how I think about the types of people that we wanna see working in industry and starting even back in California, collaborating with industry to understand, Okay, here are our needs, how can you develop...

0:02:57.7 [KENTON]: Whether it was UCLA and the other school is, how can you help us develop the workforce of tomorrow? So on the side, I taught along the way as well too, by teaching began at the University of California and in Santa Barbara, and then other places along the way, the University of Utah, and then 13 years at the Sauder School at UBC.

0:03:18.1 [BRIDGITTE]: You're not just a newcomer to academia we'll get that right up. Early on, Well, you've had such a very career business as you said, I mean, all Disney Company and Universal and Richie brothers, and you've done... You've worked in a lot of sectors and industries, which I think has probably given you additional perspective, so one might beg the question, why go to post-secondary to academia, why did you leave the private sector, what did you think that you could be doing here that you weren't doing, working in business.

0:03:49.8 [KENTON]: Great question. While I worked in business, as I mentioned Teaching, so I was impacting and making a difference to the students that I taught, whether it be in the school or the other institutions, I've taught it, and I felt that now it's time... After all these years of working in industry, my whole life purpose has been to make a difference in the lives of others, and when the BCIT opportunity came about, I looked and said, You know, I can take all these years of work experience and now come here, and give back and help develop the next generation of business and media professionals. To me Bridgitte, it’s like the career capstone.

0:04:35.4 [BRIDGITTE]: Well, you are speaking to one of the converted because I'm an alum, I did the broadcast journalism program at BCIT, seems like about 50 years ago, it was a long time ago. Fantastic program, but you know, I think given the report that we put out in February, and then just thinking about how post-secondary is evolving, coupled with the kind of workforce challenges that employers say are at the top of their list of concerns. What are you seeing as real changes in the post-secondary system to address this?

0:05:07.9 [KENTON]: I think that's a great question, 'cause I think what we need to do in post-secondary system here, have not a new, but an evolved paradigm as to the types of learners that graduate and then make an immediate and long-term impact in the organizations that they join, so taking the combination of experience that I have is both an educator and a business leader in working in the C-suite, I think it gives me this perspective, what type of talent that we need to develop to drive success in industry, and I do know you had mentioned it earlier, we work very closely with industry, we've got deep industry contacts, and this has been the bread and butter of BCIT since day one, over 50 years ago, is being aligned with industry, understanding what those needs are and ensuring that we are evolving as well, too. To meet those needs, and then I have another view and how education needs to evolve as well too.

0:06:12.9 [BRIDGITTE]: Yeah, and I think that's such an important piece because... And very broadly and very generally speaking, with no judgment for any post-secondary institution, because Greater Vancouver is got some excellent, excellent post-secondary institutions, but there seems to be a bit of a gap where... And I'm hearing this from young people, so they're saying, Well, we're not getting the kind of training that we need when we start jobs, and so there seems to be a bit of a gap in the way that even the funding model happens, government gives funding to academic institutions, academic institutions decide how many biology courses and how many other kinds of courses they're going to do, and then kids come out the other end and they have chosen a path for their career, but they may not be getting along the way, some of the kind of training they need. It was interesting, when we were putting together this report, we were hearing from young people, they wanted a lot more hands-on training, more practical kind of training, even those students who are taking Biology, for example, saying we wanted to learn a little bit more about business because we know we're gonna be working in a business, so is that sort of where BCIT is trying to take this to the next level then?

0:07:22.7 [KENTON]: Absolutely, Bridgitte those Biology students are here right now. And so basically they are here getting those practical applied skills that will expand upon their biology background, and then there'll be job-ready when they get out there. I think the way we've looked at it and what we're strengthening here at the School of Business and Media is ensuring that we look at our learners and the tool kit we want them to walk out the door with when they graduate, and we think that there are some really critical pieces that they should have in their tool kit.

0:08:03.4 [BRIDGITTE]: I mean, I knew a couple of things that come to mind for me, especially speaking to those young folks, and I've got two university age kids at home, but what are some of the things that students are telling you?

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0:08:41.5 [KENTON]: So the students are telling it like what you've heard as well too, they said, We want hands-on experiences, we want these practical goes that we know that we get out there into the workforce, we're gonna land with our feet running, and so those are folks that are ready to start a career, 'cause they may have come out of high school, but we have a number of students too that have already made that change in whether it's full-time or part-time, here at BCIT, they want to then further advance, 'cause maybe they do have that biology background and they're out there working, but they're saying you know what... I need some business skills as well too, so maybe I either take a break and we'll be set to do it full-time or I can do a part-time, so BCIT offers that flexibility. But they're here, but what we're hearing from both, whether there are people that are already graduates of post-second institution or just right out of high school, what we're hearing is, give us a solid foundation and practical skills, and we know that those are imperative for success in the marketplace, because as educators, we need to ensure that our programs are aligned to the needs of the employers, so we've got program advisory committees that are stacked with industry experts that are combining with our instructors who happen to be industry experts as well too, 'cause that's the nature of our instructors at BCIT, we bring in people and you were in broadcast people that have had experience.

0:10:08.4 [BRIDGITTE]: Yeah. It was fantastic to have access to those kinds of people. Now, I think it's called flexible learning is what you... Is what BCIT launched last October, is this sort of shift, I guess, where maybe we all need to be thinking about whether you're 25 or 55, is to think about this life-long learning journey that we all need to be on because the world continues to change and one of the components of that, you mentioned part-time courses, but the other one that I'm really interested in is micro-credentials because we have partnered with you, with BCIT to offer the ESG fundamental micro-credential, which has been hugely successful. But to me, I'm a bit of a visual thinker and I think of it sort of as a member of those pies from Trivial Pursuit, and so you put one of the pies in it, and so I think about micro-credentials like that you're adding just one little piece to your tool belt, and so maybe talk to us a little bit more about this flexible learning approach that BCIT is taking.

0:11:08.4 [KENTON]: Well, Bridgitte it is a really exciting part about BCIT right now, flexible learning, because it's perfectly structured to meet the needs of different target audience, whether they're high school students or post-secondary students, or working professionals, because we've learned that people are balancing a lot... They need flexibility with their studies, we get that, and so our flexible programs and courses are designed to help you earn in a valuable BCIT credential, whether it's a micro-credential or all the way up to a master's degree while managing the commitment you have with your career, and your life... So as you mentioned, we like we partner with you folks, the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade on the ESG Micronesia is, but we're also partnering with other companies in other industries as well too, to offer industry and corporate training where we spend our time at the School of Business and Media, understanding the needs of industry and companies, and then creating customized education solutions, so we don't just sell what's off the shelf here, we say, What are your needs in terms of how you want your employees to develop and grow? And so it can be a combination of microcodentials or it could be certificates, associate certificates, diplomas degrees, graduate certificates, so we've got just a variety of options for people that need that flexibility.

0:12:35.0 [BRIDGITTE]: And that really speaks to the importance of that industry and academia collaboration, because it is industry saying, Listen, I've got a workforce of people who need to be up-skilled in this area, so how can you help me develop that... One of the skills that we know that people need more than ever, and we're gonna continue to need more skills is on the tech side, the digital skills, the whole world, I think we say that every company is a tech company now because it's true, everybody needs to get additional skilling when it comes to that, a ton of fanfare about the BCIT Tech Collider space when it opened. So let's talk about that. What is it exactly?

0:13:21.0 [KENTON]: Great question! It’s an awesome next generation learning center and event-based right in the heart of downtown Vancouver in the technology and business district at our campus, it's at Dunsmuir and Seymour, so what it does is it's a place that's on the second floor, you walk in there, it's so impressive, and it's a place where we can bring together the education committee, the technology community, and it's an environment that actively promotes collaboration, team building and spending time together, connecting, sharing ideas and looking for those next big ideas. Because as you mentioned Bridgitte earlier, it's important to us at BCIT that our students not only have in their tool kit the foundational skills in some area, whether it be like a county or finance, journalism, but they also are digitally literate, and so Tech Collider is one of those places where our students can... They're gonna learn stuff here as well too, but down at the Tech Collider, they're gonna be able to interact with people from industry 'cause we're having events there, and we got facilities that... We've got a podcasting facility, We got a virtual... We got the 3-D printer rooms, and so just a lot of great things happen.

0:14:33.3 [BRIDGITTE]: That's fantastic. So the government says, the BC government says one million job openings in the next decade. You know from your perspective Kenton, where do you see those opportunities broadly, is it all in tech or they kind of maybe broadly across a lot of industries and sectors, and then how does BCIT and how do other post-secondaries really rise to that challenge to make sure that these gaps are being filled?

0:14:59.8 [KENTON]: Sure. So yes, not just technology, also that's gonna be huge for British Columbia. Technology, I also see in finance, health care, and as you know, we have a big film and television industry here in British Columbia. So lots of opportunities in these various sectors, and what's important for post-secondary institutions and the province is to ensure that we are doing this like... You're aware of the new Health Sciences building that we have here at BCIT, which is so impressive, we're gonna be able to churn out more healthcare professionals is harder with partnering with the province to ensure that the educational institutions are aligned with the reads of industry and community so as we've done in health sciences, we're gonna do here in business as well too, as we as we continue our dialogues with the various industries, we've got waiting list right now for people in the whole digital world.

0:16:03.1 [BRIDGITTE]: Really? A long waiting list?

0:16:04.7 [KENTON]: Yeah, we got waiting list because there are students out there that wanna take visual effects, animation, web development, UX, UI, and so we gotta move fast and be able to satisfy that demand that exists right out there for professionals that wanna work in that field, and British Columbia offers those opportunities from your job standpoint, and we are one of the digital capitals of the world, digital media capitals of the world. And one of my jobs I had were 10 years ago, I was the head of digiBCs predecessor – New Media BC and basically just watching how Vancouver and British Columbia has become one of the Global Digital Media centres of the world, whether it's video games, which we are well known for, or visual effects or animation, we've got so many amazing companies here and we're attracting big companies that Vancouver loves too, so we need to turn out the talent.

0:17:04.0 [BRIDGITTE]: And we very specifically released our report in February on labour because we wanted to get it out and to also provide our recommendations to the BC government as it was preparing its future ready plan that comes out sometime this spring, I have a bit of an idea of what might be included in, around speeding up the process for foreign credentials, perhaps some of the things that we recommended in a report, more micro-credentials, more closer alignment between industry and academia without giving away anything that you may or may not know about the report, I mean, what do you see as BCITs role in helping to deliver this, this new plan from the government?

0:17:46.3 [KENTON]: BCIT is completely aligned with your report, as I'm flipping through the pages, I'm just nodding my head. Like way to go Bridgitte! Particularly what is at page 42, Digital First. Totally makes sense here. And so what we at BCIT in a great position because we've been focused on applied learning for 50 years since we started, and so we are working closely with the province, we are working closely with industry to really understand what is necessary in our flexible learning model is just the way that we've got a structure where everything is stackable, so for example, when industry or company say to their employees, we really want you to continue to grow and develop, and some companies are actually funding their employees, but they may not wanna shell out all the money for a full degree or whatever, so what they can help their employees do is say, You know what, why don't you take that graduate certificate in sustainable leadership or whatever it might be, or an analytics at BCIT, and then take another alignment, and then we can layer these on over time, it's like building blocks.

0:19:00.5 [BRIDGITTE]: It's a great retention tool because that's one of the top things that employees want, is to be able to have access to professional development and more learning.

0:19:08.4 [KENTON]: Bite sized micro-credentials through that take you to the longer programs.

0:19:13.0 [BRIDGITTE]: That's great. We're just about out of time Kenton maybe a question to bring it back to the beginning, given your background of business and now working in academia and looking at this very large gap that we've got around the workforce, what gives you the most hope about how we're gonna solve this very complex problem?

0:19:37.2 [KENTON]: It gives me hope is that we’ve got a number of organizations growing in the same direction, whether it's the government, whether it is the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, whether it's educational institutions like BCIT... Like as I said earlier, Bridgitte, I looked at your report and said, “We are there.” and say we're aligned, and so let's all work together and now if we looked over here and you were over there, that might be a more problematic, so what give me hope is that we are looking at the same things. 

[Bridgitte]: And applied learning is the key, isn’t it?

[Kenton]: Oh applied learning is the totally key, and that's our bread and butter here at BCIT, we will be continuing to champion applied learning because our results have shown over time, and a 97% of our graduates at the School of Business and Media, they're gonna have a position within six months of graduating from here in their area of choice.

0:20:36.4 [BRIDGITTE]: Yeah, it's a fantastic model. Kenton, thanks so much for joining me today.

0:20:40.2 [KENTON]: Hey, you're welcome. Thanks for having me Bridgitte!

0:20:42.7 [BRIDGITTE]: Our labour series is sponsored by the British Columbia Institute of Technology - Education for a complex world.