LANGLEY, B.C. — The B.C. Trucking Association is getting a share of $1.4 million in funding that will help companies in the province integrate skilled immigrants into driving positions within the trucking industry.

The BCTA’s share is $196,000, which will be put towards developing a driver vocational assessment tool aimed at immigrant applicants for driving positions, as well as development of an employer licensing and training resource. The funding was made available by the Immigrant Employment Council of B.C., under its Employer Innovation Fund (EIF).

“The tool will be designed to assess job-readiness in terms of technical skills as well as with respect to communications, customer relations and other important qualities. The tool will be tested on 25 immigrants who are pre-screened and actively seeking employment in the trucking industry,” the BCTA announced. “The employer licensing and training resource will be a reference that outlines the licensing and testing requirements, training regime, and other factors that employers identify as important information in assessing the qualifications of applicants with non-Canadian licences and/or experience.”

Both projects will be developed over the next year and completed by March 2014, the BCTA announced.

“The EIF is a unique fund that will help connect employers seeking skilled talent and B.C.’s skilled immigrants who are not working or who are under-unemployed,” said Kelly Pollack, executive director of the Immigrant Employment Council of B.C. “These projects will go a long way to helping BC employers develop new and innovative ways to address labour skills shortages and facilitate the integration of skilled new immigrants into their workplaces.”