The three Dauphin MLA candidates continued to talk about the issues facing Parkland residents on the fourth day of CKDM’s MLA Q&A. The question asked this time is, why is education and training important for the Parkland?
This is PC candidate Brad Michaleski’s answer.
“We’re educating our kids to become a part of the workforce. That workforce includes people that are coming out of the k-12 system and may enter the workforce right away, or they may choose to go into post-secondary. Really, the education system needs to play into Manitoba’s strengths. You look at the k-12 review that’s going on right now and that’s a very exciting review, it’s the first time it’s been done in 40 years. We’re having a lot of stakeholders coming up and saying this is what the education system needs and we have jobs available in the Parkland. The education system needs to accommodate what’s happening on the ground. As much as academic skill levels, we need to make sure that our kids are getting the academic education and that we’re striving for the best, for our kids. But also, when you start looking at a region like the Parkland, which has a diverse resource base, our education system needs to accommodate that and be aware of that. So people that are coming out of high school and graduating know that there are jobs available, entry-level jobs across the region. Education is the most important tool I think and the biggest responsibility of the government really, to make sure our kids are educated to the highest standards we can and it’s relevant to the region.”
NDP candidate Darcy Scheller has her input.
“Obviously, it is the base for our youth to start their life. We definitely need to invest into education, we need to help our educators be able to work well with students, and not be debilitated by a 30-35 student classroom with no TA’s because they’ve been cut, it’s not a recipe for success. Good educated youth coming out of our high schools is great for all of our businesses and we definitely need to invest in more college and university courses here in Dauphin and trades. That’s going to keep our youth here and working.”
Finally, Liberal candidate Cathy Scofield-Singh shares her thoughts.
“It’s a very important issue because we are an ageing population. The people who are working in the jobs are hoping to or wanting to retire, may not be able to afford to retire but we need to have young people or even people who are changing jobs to have the opportunity to go back to school to learn a new career. We know that technology is changing drastically, things that we were able to do manually before is being done by artificial intelligence now. I mean, you look at some of the big plants now, there’s maybe, a quarter of the people actually running those programs. So, what are we going to have in place to help those people who have been displaced by those jobs? We need to have education available to them and it’s affecting not just young people, but it’s affecting people my age. 59 years old and suddenly are no longer in a job because it’s been replaced. They need to be able to go back to school so that they can learn a new trade or a new skill.”
Be sure to listen tomorrow for the final MLA Q&A when the candidates will tell you why you should vote for them.
