TRAINING UPDATE

Promoting the Trades

During the month of January, we accepted applications for apprenticeship training, for the first time since September, 2005. We have received over 100 applications, most of them on-line. We will have our next Construction Craft Worker Basic class beginning March 16 and will select most of the 16 new apprentices from the January applicants. (Some of the spaces are already taken by applicants from September who had previously qualified.)

Next month, March 28 – 29 – 30, we will be participating in Futurebuild 2006, at the National Trade Centre. This is organized by the Ontario Construction Secretariat, and will have displays by most of the Building Trades unions as well as groups like the Toronto Construction Association. Some of the 15,000 or so students who come to the show may decide to pursue careers in construction.

The event is NOT a Careers Fair. Generally, the unions participating in Futurebuild are mostly having no difficulty finding recruits. Apprenticeship, by definition, is learning on the job. So, there have to be jobs for the recruits to become apprentices. There is a debate about the existence of shortages in the skilled trades and what to do about it. (See, for example, the May 2004 Training Update.) Futurebuild 2006 may help orient some young people to construction and possibly consider it as a future option. But it is not needed for finding recruits in 2006.

The Ontario government’s proposal to make all youth stay in school until age 18, but to accommodate the ones less comfortable with academic study by creating 2,000 new apprenticeships, is perceived by most of us in the field as a threat not as a promise. I think it is just one more example of people (usually middle class) who have little or no understanding of the nature and function of apprenticeship. Apprenticeship may contribute to solving economic problems like productivity and competitiveness, but it is not a solution to social problems.

The trades, including Construction Craft Worker, are very good options for careers for many individuals. They deserve more understanding and more status. But we don’t need help in finding recruits.