Local survey predicts 1000 new jobs coming to the Quinte Area

By Shelby Wye

Local manufacturers say they have possibly a 1000 new jobs available over the next five years, but they also report that there’s a need for more skilled workers to fill those positions.

A local in-depth survey by the Quinte Economic Development Commission has revealed one of local manufacturing businesses’ biggest challenges is a misunderstood perception of what they do.

The QEDC’s goal with this survey was to gauge up-and-coming jobs that may be available to the area, along with common challenges that manufacturing businesses have when deciding to make base in Quinte.

The survey determined that up to 1000 new jobs may be coming to the Quinte area over the next five years.

“And that’s a conservative estimate,” said Mike Hewitt, coordinator of Quinte Manufacturing Resource Centre. “And it only estimates the jobs of existing businesses, not new ones that might come to the area.”

Hewitt is one of the surveyors that literally went business to business to complete the surveys, which consisted both of paperwork and in person interviews Around 7,000 persons were sampled for this survey.

Chris King, chief executive officer of QEDC,said the survey also covered what skill sets a future employee of Quinte’s manufacturing sector might need. The most needed positions include general labourers, production operators and lift truck operators, along with several more.

There is also a need for scientists and engineers

All of these are high-skill job positions, but there’s is a stereotype to manufacturing jobs.

“They require a very high level of skills. A lot of people get the sense that manufacturing is not high skilled work but the manufacturing in this region uses advanced technology so they need people with high skill sets to operate their line,” said King.

Mike Whitaker, an employment counselor at Loyalist College,said this misperception often starts in high school.

“Schools need to direct students to the right pathways, and promote all pathways, not just university,” said Whitaker.

He comments that there is a push for students to apply themselves to university, when in reality, there are many jobs that can be found through apprenticeships or college education.

Whitaker says there needs to be more steps taken to establish stronger and more-common communication between manufacturing businesses, educators and parents. This is something that Hewitt has also noticed.

“There needs to be more awareness [of manufacturing],” said Hewitt. There are a few initiatives that are in the works, including TradeWise, which is an all day event that introduces high school girls to trade work and providing kits to teachers to educate students about jobs in science, technology, engineering and math.

King said the next step is apply what they learned.

“The manufacturers came together on  June 20th, and we came together, and said this is what the data states…now what do we DO about this, what do we do as a community to make sure we can continue to support and grow our manufacturing sector,” said King

The study began last November, and it’s required to be wrapped up by this September. The information the QEDC gathered will be compiled and organized into an action plan that should be available sometime in August.