Mid-career workers across the region are taking advantage of the re-training and employment tools available to them through the website portal of the NLC Climb Centre, a Northern Lights College initiative that is funded by the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Centre.
CLIMB, which stands for Continuous Learning for Individuals’ Mid-career and Beyond, has welcomed over 300 mid-career workers to the site over the last four weeks, who are looking to discover the skills they need to adapt and succeed in a changing workforce.
The goal of the Climb Centre project is to assist mid-career workers considering a career change or further training in their chosen career. The free online platform has helped participants identify their individual strengths, the risks posed to their jobs by automation, assessed how skills match with employers’ needs, and explored how their passion aligns with various career and training options.
In addition to these free resources, the Climb Centre offers individuals who complete all the self-discovery assessments a tuition-waived online course to help them prepare for and succeed in an online training environment.
The Climb Centre also offers a tuition-waived trades math course that meets the math admissions requirement for any NLC trades program.
As part of the project, participants are invited to take part in a research project. The NLC Climb Centre portal is accessible at climb.nlc.bc.ca.
The Continuous Learning for Individuals’ Mid-career and Beyond project is funded by the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Centre.
Quotes
“The Climb Centre’s program is an excellent example of the kind of future-facing initiative that is making our labour market more resilient. By helping mid-career workers re-evaluate their skills and identify where they can best be deployed in a changing economy, CLIMB is putting a compass in workers’ hands as they set out in a new direction.”
— Pedro Barata, Executive Director, Future Skills Centre
“The Climb Centre project helps guide workers who are concerned about their future in labour market. The information we are collecting from our participants will help shape the workforce for years to come. Northern Lights College has long been dedicated to serving the people in our communities. If we can help them advance in their chosen career, or get the right retraining for a new one, we will do it.”
—Loren D. Lovegreen, Vice President Academic and Research, Northern Lights College
About Future Skills Centre
Future Skills Centre is a forward-thinking research and collaboration hub dedicated to preparing Canadians for employment success and meeting the emerging talent needs of employers. As a pan-Canadian community, FSC brings together experts and organizations across sectors to rigorously identify, assess, and share innovative approaches to develop the skills needed to drive prosperity and inclusion. FSC is directly involved in innovation through investments in pilot projects and academic research on the future of work and skills in Canada. The Future Skills Centre is funded by the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Program.