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‘Micro-credentials’ offer rapid post-secondary training in B.C.

Mass timber, ‘data literacy’ among 24 courses for in-demand skills
24167273_web1_20210208-BPD-Brock-Commons-build-2016.FPInnovations
Construction of Brock Commons student residence at UBC using mass timber technology, 2016. One of the new micro-credential courses offered at BCIT is an introduction to mass timber. (FPInnovations photo)

The B.C. government is spending $4 million of its federal-provincial economic recovery funds to start “micro-credential” programs that offer an introduction to in-demand job skills on a short-term and usually online basis.

Programs are being offered at 14 post-secondary institutions that made proposals, creating an expected 2,000 student spaces for courses. They include an introduction to mass timber construction at B.C. Institute of Technology, medical terminology for office administration at North Island College, facilities maintenance at Selkirk College and digital marketing skills at University of the Fraser Valley.

“These micro-credentials are for people whose jobs were affected by COVID-19, and who are looking to re-skill for a new career, or up-skill in an existing area,” said Anne Kang, B.C.’s minister of advanced education.

They are designed to fit in with people’s work and family obligations, and courses take weeks rather than months to complete.

The program is funded 50-50 by the federal and provincial government from its COVID-19 economic recovery programs.

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@tomfletcherbc
tfletcher@blackpress.ca

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