Had media been present, it would have been the photo op of the decade: a smiling Premier Christy Clark standing side by side with BC Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair.
But when the two met in the premier’s office last September, there were no photographers present. The occasion was an exploratory meeting with government, labour and industry leaders aimed at figuring out how to supply the province’s emerging liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry with enough skilled workers.
A few days earlier, Clark had appointed former deputy premier Jessica McDonald to review the Industry Training Authority (ITA), the Crown agency responsible for trades training and apprenticeships in the province. That review, together with decisions stemming from the September meeting at the premier’s office, would result seven months later in an ambitious plan to overhaul the province’s trades training program – and a shift in attitudes toward the role of trades and labour in the province’s economic future.
The Skills for Jobs Blueprint, released in April this year, incorporated 19 recommendations from the LNG Working Group that grew out of that September meeting, as well as 25 recommendations from McDonald’s review of the ITA.
Aimed at supplying a projected million new jobs by 2022, the blueprint calls for, among other things, a reallocation of education funding from academic programs to trades training, and the introduction of trades to the school curriculum as early as kindergarten.
At the centre of the plan to shift resources and attitudes in favour of trades training is Gary Herman, who was named CEO of the ITA in July.
And if anyone can pull off the tectonic shift in attitudes towards the trades in B.C., he can; having followed a career path from the shop floor to the board room, he’s uniquely suited to the task and is as handy with a spanner wrench as he is with a spreadsheet.
Born and raised in Ontario, Herman started out with seven years in trades apprenticeships, then worked his way up to management in various manufacturing industries, earning an executive MBA along the way. An executive position at railway manufacturer VAE Nortrak brought him to B.C. in 2007, and he joined the ITA as chief operating officer in January 2013.
He served as interim CEO during the review process last spring and was confirmed as the head of the Crown agency in July, three months after the Skills for Jobs Blueprint was released and one month after the entire board of the ITA had been replaced.
A big part of the jobs blueprint involves convincing today’s youth that a career in trades is at least as appealing as academic options, and Herman brings to that task a rare ability to bridge the gap between the trades workers of tomorrow and their future employers. “I can walk into a school and speak with a 16- or 17-year-old who’s trying to make a decision and wants some information about the trades just as easily as I can talk to the board of directors on strategic decisions,” he said.
At least as important as the ability to drum up interest in the trades among today’s youth are the managerial skills required to juggle all the complex parts of the jobs blueprint, and Herman is confident the task will be made easier by a lesson he learned early in his career.
“One of the key things skilled trades teach is how to think methodically,” he said. “When you learn through your teachings how to think methodically, you automatically apply it to all areas of your life.”
Just as the mechanic who comes to fix your furnace has to work through a troubleshooting checklist, he explained, a CEO confronting a business challenge has to first lay out a clear path to the solution, then tick off each step in sequence.
Herman doesn’t regret trading in his coveralls for a suit, saying he still has the opportunity to get his hands dirty messing around with tools at home. But he added that kids brought up in urban environments today may be missing out on a quintessential part of growing up.
“Guys from my generation, we got to tinker with dad on the car,” he said. “Picture growing up in a condo in Vancouver: you may never have held a hammer in your hand.”
There was one jarring note in Herman’s otherwise smooth transition from the private sector to a government agency. In his 30-plus years working his way up from shop floor to management, he said, he had never considered that the suits and the grease monkeys might be playing for different teams.
“When I joined the ITA it was the first time I heard, ‘This is industry and this is labour,’” he said. “I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ In Ontario we just call it industry; there’s union and there’s non-union folks, but everybody works together to make sure they’re getting the outcomes they need.”
Nevertheless, those divisions remain firmly entrenched in B.C. politics and culture, and for all his dexterity at navigating between workers and bosses, Herman faces a challenge in bringing employers and union members together in order to see the jobs blueprint through to fruition.
Looking back at that September meeting with Premier Clark, Jim Sinclair is encouraged by the mere fact that he was asked to participate. “It puts it on the table that labour has to be there, and that wasn’t always the case,” he said.
Sinclair said the jobs blueprint that grew out of the September meeting and the McDonald review is a positive start.
“We can’t imagine they’d be going backwards at the ITA at this point, so we’re looking forward to being partners in an improved apprenticeship and training program,” Sinclair said.
Even with everyone on the same page, Herman will have his work cut out for him, said Clyde Scollan, president of the Construction Labour Relations Association of BC, which represents unionized construction employers. He has met Herman and admires the combination of trades and business background he brings to the ITA, but cautions against playing down the magnitude of the task he faces.
“A revamped ITA from stem to stern and a blueprint for re-engineering the education and training system – those are big, big tasks,” Scollan said. “Hopefully he’s the right person for the job, but whoever’s there has to have the right environment.”
And that environment has so many variables, Scollon said, that it’s too early to tell whether history will prove Herman to be an agent of historic change or whether the Skills for Jobs Blueprint will soon be forgotten as just another slogan.
“Have they created a model that’s going to be driven by industry needs as opposed to politics? We sure hope so and we’re certainly happy to try and support them in the endeavour,” Scollan said. “The key thing is that at this point in the process there are more unknowns than knowns.”
At 54, Herman views his promotion to head of the ITA as an opportunity to give something back to the trades that have given him such a rewarding career. And for him, “giving back” is no mere cliché but is embedded in the apprenticeship system itself.
“I’ve never forgotten where I came from,” he said. “As an apprentice, you’re always asking for help because people are showing you what to do. The secret is to always be grateful for that help because it helps you move along and opens up other opportunities.”
