Saturday, August 25, 2018

Support Is Key to Bolstering Apprenticeship Registration

Statistics Canada has released the most recent numbers for apprenticeship, revealing registration has declined in every province and territory.

CLAC and other construction industry stakeholders are concerned, reiterating the message that serious changes must be made to fill the looming skills gap.

“This is the first time we’ve seen registrations down in every province across the whole country, which is maybe more troubling because it doesn’t really reflect the kind of demand we’re hearing from industry around the need for skilled tradespeople,” Sarah Watts-Rynard, executive director of the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum, said in an interview with the Daily Commercial News.

There were 417,300 people registered for apprenticeship programs in Canada in 2016, down from 455,900 in 2015, Statistics Canada reports. Of this total, new registrations accounted for approximately 72,000 registrations in 2016, while 337,450 were already registered.

Watts-Rynard said she is mostly concerned about registered apprentices who may be part way through a program and need work to achieve certification.

“When registrations are down across the board, it tells us that the opportunities for people who are in an apprenticeship already are potentially finding that it’s hard to find jobs—which could mean apprentices aren’t progressing. That gives us a sense that we’re going to see numbers actually drop out completely and go to other fields at a time when we are hearing pretty much from every sector of the economy that they’re having real difficulty filling skilled-trades positions,” she explained. “I know the economy is cyclical. That demand will come back and I think the industry is going to be looking around saying ‘Where are the apprentices,’ and they will not be there.”

She pointed out the numbers are two years old and may not reflect the current reality. “I imagine by the time we’re looking at 2018 numbers, which won’t be until 2020, we’ll see that there has been a bit of a recovery,” she said.

For CLAC, the need for people in the skilled trades in general—and for apprentices in particular—is clear, and supporting apprentices is a top priority. To help apprentices complete their in-school training, CLAC reimburses 100 percent of apprenticeship trade school tuition fees for eligible members. Students who earn a final trade school mark of 80 percent or higher can receive an additional $100 bonus.

The CLAC Training Team is always there to provide whatever assistance they can.

“We want apprentices to know they can come to us for support in helping them navigate the apprenticeship pathway,” says Sarah Harris, jobs and apprenticeship coordinator for CLAC Training in Ontario.

CLAC will be developing various initiatives aimed at supporting apprentices this fall and throughout 2019 in order to ensure apprentices can complete their education and certification exams.

Joe Vaccaro, chair of the Ontario Skilled Trades Alliance, said the key to creating more apprenticeship opportunities is a combination of cutting red tape to make the process less taxing for employers and fixing the ratios so employers have spots to offer.

“We have been saying for quite some time now that securing an apprenticeship is not an easy thing to do,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons we’ve been pressing the provincial government to make adjustments and make it easier for apprentices and for employers to create those spots. Let’s simplify the process and get the outcome that we want: more people training in apprenticeship so they can walk out a certified tradesperson.”

A fresh approach to attracting a new set of people to the skilled trades has been lacking, said Sean Reid, vice-president of member relations for the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada.

“We’ve taken the same old thinking and it has just not achieved any meaningful results,” he said. “We should be thinking about what we can do within our industry to attract nonconstruction people.”

Support Is Key to Bolstering Apprenticeship Registration

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