In an effort to inject some new life into an age-old practice and address a labour shortage in the skilled trades across the country, an apprenticeship conference was held earlier this week in Victoria.
Recognizing apprenticeships as an important part of the labour market solution, the conference was strongly supported by business and labour groups from British Columbia and other provinces.
Hosted by the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum (CAF) and attended by about 500 delegates, presenters at the conference included federal Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg and B.C. MLA Ida Chong, Minister of Community Services.
"The goal of the conference is to unite all the different players within the apprenticeship model….and raise awareness with all those partners so that they can understand how they can better access the resources of apprentices and how employers can better utilize those resources to have a better return on investment," said CAF chair Dan Mott in an interview during the conference.
Mott said it has "been a concern in industry" that only about 20 percent of employers currently hire apprentices. In attempting to change that, part of CAF's agenda is to hold educational forums across the country on the benefits of training apprentices.
Apprenticeships have been used in many countries since the time of Ancient Greece and Rome as a way to pass on skills and knowledge to youth.
As a result of the recession in the early1990s, apprenticeship enrolments dropped in Canada. Trades fell out of favour; a career in technology became preferable to learning a trade, and increasingly more young people wanted to acquire college degrees.
However, while "there's always been a bit of a gap historically in the connection from high school through to the trades," said Mott, apprenticeship enrolments are going up, especially in B.C.
Women are also entering the trades now more than ever before, in large part thanks to CAF's efforts in spreading the word that not all the trades involve hard or heavy work.
"There's a variety of different disciplines in each trade and there are great opportunities for women in all sectors of the apprenticeship model."
And the money is good. After a four-year apprenticeship, an average tradesperson in Canada is currently making $60,000 to $80,000 per year.
"We had a young fellow on the stage here yesterday who is working in Fort St. John," said Mott. "When he's through his welding apprenticeship, along with his truck and equipment he'll be making $110 an hour."
To generate more interest, podcasts of both a journeyperson's and an apprentice's viewpoint taped during the event will be made available to school boards across the country in the fall.
With an aging workforce and less people choosing the trades as a career, it is expected that by 2025 Canada's skilled labour shortage will reach 1.2 million people.
The shortage of skilled trade workers covers the spectrum, from the mining, oil and gas sectors to the construction industry; there's often even a lengthy waiting period to get home appliances repaired.
While immigration is seen as a way to bolster Canada's overall workforce, according to the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) immigrants do not enter the trades in large numbers.
Canada's current immigration policy favours highly educated immigrants and does not bring in large numbers of tradespersons. In 2001, of the recent immigrants aged 25 to 44, only 5.4 percent had apprenticeship training, according to CCL's website.
However, companies are recruiting employees from other countries such as Germany and the Philippines.
The "good news," said Kelly Lendsay, president and CEO of the Aboriginal Human Resource Council (AHRC), is that Canada has a young, growing Aboriginal population; 50 percent of Aboriginal people are under 25.
"We have an Aboriginal baby boom and it's growing 4-5 times faster in terms of the labour market…. It only makes sense to target areas of our country where there are these fast-growing populations and one is Aboriginal people."
On June 10 and 11, directly after the apprenticeship conference, AHRC hosted the first ever National Aboriginal Trades Symposium at the same location in the Victoria Conference Centre.
Lendsay said that over the last seven years, First Nations involvement in the trades and apprenticeships has been steadily increasing. With partnerships, projects and mechanisms in place in the territories and provinces, some "real good headway" is being made.
While Aboriginals have historically sought work as ironworkers and in construction, in the last five years their employment in the mining sector grew by 22 percent. "Aboriginal people have a strong tradition of being involved in the trades and Aboriginal people can be a solution to Canada's skill shortages. We're building partnerships to do that," said Lendsay.
An impediment to Aboriginal involvement in the apprenticeship system, as pointed out by a speaker at the conference, is that because of the remoteness of many of the communities and the lack of a strong economic base, there is an absence of the necessary training facilities.
However, a number of First Nations training groups at the apprenticeship conference were looking at ways to facilitate training programs in their local areas.
Apprenticeship programs involve both in-class and on-the-job training, and usually last for about four years. The in-class portion can last from six to 12 weeks per year, and apprentices are eligible for unemployment during that time. "They're making money while they're taking their apprenticeship, and it goes up in increments over the four years," said Mott. "There are significant bursaries from the government and there are also tax credits to the employers both federally and provincially."
A 2006 CAF study found that on average, for every dollar employers invest in apprenticeship training, a benefit of $1.38 is realized — a net return of $0.38.
Held every two years in different cities, the 2010 apprenticeship conference will take place in St. John's, Newfoundland.
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