This text is part of the special section Professions and careers
The first successes in the development of the battery sector pose an unprecedented challenge in the context of full employment that Quebec is experiencing. The aim is to create the 8,000 to 10,000 jobs expected within ten years without cannibalizing the human resources of the rest of Quebec’s manufacturing sector.
“We absolutely do not want to undress Pierre to dress Paul,” explains Mia Homsy, vice-president of labor and economic intelligence at Investissement Québec, whose task is to coordinate this effort.
Following consultations with manufacturers and a few visits abroad, Mia Homsy first put together a global file which describes in detail all the jobs required by type and number. She then established the required training and initiated coordination between the ministries involved — Education, Higher Education, Employment and Immigration. And it’s not over since each announcement increases the list. “I saw the labor needs for Northvolt this week and it’s honestly exciting. »
This list, not definitive, remains confidential, but another is circulating, which concerns a future Bécancour training center planned for 2025. This gives details for a first tranche of 1708 technical jobs concerning the factories currently under construction in Bécancour.
It appears that approximately half of technical jobs will be at the college level, a third at the professional (secondary) level and 10% at the university level. But, as Mia Homsy explains, its overall list also includes about 15% direct administrative jobs.
In itself, job etiquette is nothing new. Operators, supply specialists, laboratory and instrumentation technicians, in mechanical engineering, in chemistry, Quebec already has plenty of them. “Except these jobs will be anything but generic,” she said. These will be high value added, very well paid, “very advanced manufacturing” type jobs. These employees will work in sanitized environments on completely new tasks that will require advanced skills and specialized training. »
A first inter-order school project
In the fall of 2022, while the first projects in the battery sector began to land in Bécancour, the mayor, Lucie Allard, realized the workforce challenge that awaited her: 2,000 specialized jobs in a sparse city of 15,000 inhabitants without secondary school, CEGEP or university.
She therefore called on the general director of the Drummondville CEGEP, Pierre Leblanc, who then brought together representatives of the five school service centers in Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec, the four CEGEPs in these two regions and the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières. As of winter 2023, this group agrees to found the “Mauricie and Centre-du-Québec Energy Training Consortium” dedicated to opening a specialized training center in Bécancour.
This so-called “interorder” school, the first of its kind in Quebec, will bring together secondary, college and university level training under one roof.
For this project, estimated at $20 million, the government has already allocated the funds to carry out the analysis and plans. “It will take classes, laboratories, instrumentation,” explains Pierre Leblanc. Northvolt contacted us to set up a “pilot line”, that is to say a production simulator which will allow students to learn in conditions close to real life. »
Pierre Leblanc explains that at the same time he is working to set up a consultation between 25 CEGEPs. “It is about coordinating in order to offer quality training with as little duplication as possible between establishments. »
High-flying
According to Mia Homsy, the mobilization of the community in Bécancour opens the way to a new training model, which would also involve businesses, but which will also require real cooperation between several ministries with Investissement Québec ensuring coordination.
“It’s administrative high-flying, but we have no choice,” she said. In fact, several factories will need to enter production from 2026!
Mia Homsy explains that in the very short term, foreign recruitment targets have already been established, but that these people will still need to be trained. “But it is too early to say what share of jobs will come from immigration, graduation, requalification, intersectoral mobility, interregional mobility,” she said. This is the great unknown. »
In the immediate future, establishments will have to meet the challenge of updating programs and increasing their attractiveness. “Several CEGEP sectors have training profiles that roughly correspond to the needs of the industry, but which are not necessarily very popular. These programs will need to be adapted for another industry. But they will also have to be filled, and that will require making them attractive, and very quickly. »
This content was produced by the Special Publications team at Duty, relating to marketing. The writing of the Duty did not take part.