New training seats grow skilled-trades at KPU
The province announced 462 spots as part of a 5,000 trades training seat expansion
Premier David Eby made the announcement at KPU’s Tech campus in Cloverdale on July 28. (Submitted)
The B.C. government announced 462 new trade training seats at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
With the added seats, KPU’s trade training spots grew to 1,762.
“We’ve seen lengthy delays in apprentices moving through their programs towards Red Seal completion, and a massive piece of that has been a lack of seats, [and] a lack of funding associated with those seats,” says Laura McDonald, dean of the Faculty of Trades and Technology.
The expansion is part of the province’s Look West strategy to create 5,000 trades training seats across B.C. in 2026-27 — through $241 million in funding across three years.
The province funded the initiative after advocacy from Trades Training BC and the BC Association of Trades and Technical Administrators, an association of public post-secondary trades training institutions’ deans and associate deans.
“It shows the real commitment of the province to skilled trades workers, but also to the economic growth that B.C. is seeing right now,” McDonald says.
The B.C. government also announced trades training seats at other institutions: 272 spots at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Okanagan College received 256 spots, Vancouver Island University with 64 seats, and 224 spots at Vancouver Community College.
KPU’s trades programs include carpentry, electrical work, millwrighting, plumbing, welding, and more. The new seats will help increase intakes, reduce wait lists, and expand apprenticeship training opportunities.
“It’s been a real point of frustration that [KPU] hasn’t been able to meet that demand because of the lack of seats and seat funding, so it’s nice to be at a point where we can not just hear the needs of the students and empathize with them, but directly address them through opening up additional seats,” McDonald says.
She adds that the funding will give KPU stability to plan for the future.
“It’s stability for our instructors, my admin team, the BCGEU team, but also for apprentices being able to plan out their lives,” McDonald says. “It’s not going to be an eight-year journey to go from year one to Red Seal completion.”
She adds that there is an incoming “massive retirement bubble” of skilled trades workers.
“If we don’t prepare for that and we don’t have the skilled trades workers in place, the province … will slow down considerably. It’ll be downtown Vancouver rush hour traffic as opposed to a 10-lane highway,” she says.
McDonald says students should consider KPU’s skilled-trades programs because they offer a “beautiful blend of theory and practical.”
“Driving to work, think about every stoplight that you see along the way that’s installed by an electrician,” McDonald says. “I think it’s opening people’s minds to the robust breath and nature of the skilled trades and what they can offer to so many people.”
