leadership matters
By Phil Wilson, CHRP, SHRP
Reforming Ontario’s
Apprenticeships
Regime
TO RESTORE ONTARIO’S
PROSPERITY, THE GOVERNMENT
MUST INVIGORATE THE
TRADES TO BOTH FULFIL THE
TALENT NEEDS OF BUSINESS
AND TO CREATE HIGH-PAYING
JOBS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.
There’s a paradox in the Ontario economy: youth unemploy-ment
is sitting at 17 per cent, yet the province is facing a
skilled trades shortage that’s costing Ontario $24 billion
annually.
Young people are sitting idle while high-paying jobs as electri-cians,
millwrights and mechanics go unfilled. And as a wave of
baby boomers begin to retire out of the trades, more Ontario com-panies
will be scrambling to fill skilled trades positions.
This spring, the Human Resources Professionals Association
(HRPA) released a report containing a series of recommenda-tions
to remedy this situation. The report, Apprenticeship Reform:
Ontario’s future depends on it, calls on Ontario’s new College of
Trades to make changes to its apprenticeships regime, including
modernizing the certified tradespeople-to-student ratio required
to train apprentices, and ensuring fair and transparent classifica-tion
of compulsory trades.
To restore Ontario’s prosperity, the government must invigorate
the trades to both fulfil the talent needs of business and to create
high-paying jobs for young people. HRPA produced the report
to prompt discussion among government, business, education-al
institutes and other stakeholders on how they can partner to
produce apprentices and apprenticeship programs that meet the
province’s skills needs.
The report’s key recommendations include modernizing
Ontario’s journeyperson-to-apprentice ratio (the numbers of cer-tified
tradespersons required to train an apprentice). Compared
to other provinces, Ontario’s current ratio is restrictive and un-justifiable
– and risks losing potential apprentices to provinces
with more favourable ratios. The report recommends government
review the current ratio to get the province in synch with other
jurisdictions.
The report also calls for fair and transparent classification of
compulsory trades. While some trades like electrician, plumber
or auto mechanic are already compulsory and require certification
of tradespeople, the College’s Review Panel is charged with clas-sifying
other trades and deciding whether they need to become
compulsory (with added fees and training demands for workers).
HRPA recommends ensuring fairness and transparency during
this process, with the rationale for every decision to extend the
range of compulsory trades clearly outlined and monitored for
consistency.
And most importantly, the report says government must do
more to promote the skilled trades as viable and lucrative careers
to young people, including: raising awareness of future prospects
in the trades, changing perceptions of skilled trades, increas-ing
the flexibility of paths to skilled trade jobs and increasing
Lisa F. Young/Shutterstock
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ JULY/AUGUST 2014 ❚ 7