Okanagan College Foundation

BC’s tourism and hospitality industry faces a critical workforce challenge. The Okanagan is especially vulnerable, with a 15.8% unemployment rate in the sector — the highest in BC; 25,000 vacancies and job openings predicted by 2035, equating to $0.6 billion in losses.

2025 saw a bumper harvest, but fortunes can be fickle. In recent years, seasonal labour challenges, housing shortages, and the devastating impact of extreme weather and climate change — from freezing temperatures to extreme heat and wildfire smoke — have impacted crops, businesses, and our local tourism economy.

We need bold solutions through targeted investment in skills and innovation to create a stronger, future-ready region.

With your help, in 2027, Okanagan College’s $61 million Centre for Food, Wine and Tourism will open its doors.

It will be Canada’s first purpose-built facility integrating food, beverage, and tourism education, serving the Okanagan and beyond.

Featuring state-of-the-art kitchens, tasting and demo labs, event spaces and a restaurant, the Centre will be a living lab, inspiring the next generation. A space where industry leaders convene. A place for community to gather.

At its heart, five pillars will define the new Centre’s approach:

• Experiential learning: Real guest, vineyard, kitchen, and tourism micro-stages for students to test, fail, iterate, and gain hands-on experience. Students will launch pop-up dinners, host wine-tour circuits, and lead immersive hospitality events. They will expand their horizons, participating in national and international competitions.
   
• Sustainability: Protecting our region’s valuable resources and focusing on local, sustainable solutions will be at the heart of the curricula and applied research projects.
   
• Co-creation with industry: Our partners are not just advisors; they are active collaborators — opening up land, vineyard plots, event venues, setting R&D challenges, providing market feedback, and apprenticeship pathways. We will invite in experts and chefs in residence to share their talents and teach specialist skills, elevating the student experience.
   
• Honouring place and reconciliation: Indigenous knowledge, food systems, hospitality, and stewardship of the land will inform our approach. We will embed Indigenous-led curriculum, land-based learning, and collaborative custodianship.
   
• Adaptive and experimental: Labs, quick prototyping, feedback loops, responsive curriculum, and ongoing innovation. Our program will be agile, and our learning environments will evolve in response to shifts in industry and climate.

Addressing skills gaps and driving innovative solutions will reap rewards:

• Revenue Gains: filling the predicted 25,000 vacancies by 2035 could drive $3.5-4B in tourism revenue.
   
• Investing in tourism and hospitality education delivers a return of $2.5 for every $1 invested through productivity, revenue and tax contributions.
   
• Tourism Multiplier: investing in tourism has a multiple effect, which could create ~20,000 additional jobs across related and aligned sectors.

And beyond economics, we will build dreams. Our students will craft unique experiences, as they learn and grow.

Anticipate up to 750 students per year across culinary and pastry arts, beverage programming, events, tourism and hospitality management. From early career professionals to experts and enthusiasts.

Envision our alumni opening regenerative wineries, farm-to-visitor inns, seasonal kitchens, and low-impact, sustainable tourism experiences.
Imagine the Centre hosting summer intensives and bootcamps, research residencies, and co-lab projects, attracting interest from beyond the region.

Visitors will taste wine grown under climate-smart viticulture, dining on food sourced from regenerative orchards next door, seasonal cuisine which is quintessentially Okanagan.