TWO-EYED SEEING NETWORK SETS OUT TO REDEFINE WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT FOR INDIGENOUS YOUTH

VICTORIA (July 28, 2021) - A new partnership, led by the Construction Foundation of BC, seeks to build dialogue and develop innovative solutions around the future of skills and training with Indigenous youth and their community leaders.

Beginning this summer, the Two Eyed Seeing Network will host a series of focus groups to seek guidance and input from First Nations communities and youth across the province to help design the Network and gather promising practices around workforce development, including what those that have had the greatest positive impact on youth in their communities.

“Indigenous youth are vital to our future workforce,” shared Abigail Fulton, Executive Director of the Construction Foundation of BC. “The Two Eyed Seeing Network will engage First Nations youth now to ensure their voices have been included in the collective mapping of our future careers.”

Over the next two years, the Network will conduct a series of round tables sessions across the province to explore the past, present and future of workforce development in British Columbia. To guide the process, Network partners will use a ‘Two-Eyed Seeing’ approach using both a Western and an Indigenous lens – blending new technologies, standards, and practices in a manner that honours the whole person and their relationship with the land and with others.

“The Two Eyed Seeing Network will bring First Nations communities and youth together with industry leaders and education providers to co-create a new pathway to ensure Indigenous youth are successful in their pursuit of future careers,” shared Two Eyed Seeing Consulting CCC Inc owner, Dean Heron. “There are new career opportunities on the horizon in clean technology; clean energy; natural resource extraction and processing; marine shipping; the built environment; and manufacturing. We want to ensure that First Nations youth in BC are at the table when these new careers arrive.”

The Two Eyed Seeing Network, funded through the Future Skills Centre, is a partnership between the: Construction Foundation of BC, Two Eyed Seeing Consulting CCC Inc., Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC), Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre, Vancouver Island University and the Electrical Joint Training Committee.