Canadian Apprenticeship Journal

Very pleased to share in the inaugural issue of the Canadian apprenticeship Council's new print and on-line journal. I've an article in it on apprenticeships, hope it provides enlightenment on the experience of being "new on the block".

http://www.caj-jca.ca/index.php/caj-jca/issue/current

Check it out!

Ratios & The Construction Trades

 The reality of replacing retiring tradespeople is likely, as it seems to me at present, settling down to two groups; those trades such as auto mechanics which lend themselves to two or three full time stints at tech school, and apprenticeships.

A couple of guys I've talked to recently are mid-thirties and have gone through an obstacle course to get into an apprenticeship and stay employed. Compare that to parents of young people who are more than happy to pay for two or three years of college (or tech school) after which an employer can have a young person with a substantial jump start on the trade.

Construction trades are very much different. Work is much less consistent and must be primarily learned on the job. Labour standards are much less consistently enforced, making it much more of a battle to collect a regular paycheck and have any paid benefits; pensions are rare. At many levels, I think that bringing in skilled workers from other countries while we have so many young people wanting to apprentice is a very poor solution. However, without changes to apprenticeship practice, that's what will happen.

I've also given some thought to the union's argument that changing the ratios would cause a glut of apprentices and jeopardize the jobs of journeymen. That is in fact what happened during the early 80's recession; I went from being a foreman of three journeymen and three apprentices to being a foreman of three apprentices. Did a lot of baby-sitting those days. As an older tradesman, even though I more than pull my weight, maybe I should be thankful.  

Apprenticeship Ratios Update

I've been on a learning curve about these ratios. The link below is to a Connecticut based research article that seems to indicate fair uniformity for electrical, plumbing and HVAC trades. They typically start out 1:1 for a self employed tradesman, 2:2, 3:5 etc. For greater numbers, the ratio becomes 3:1.

End result? Big contractors need to hire more journeymen as they grow. The panic has started recently as journeymen get older. What hasn't happened, is wages increasing very much. 

How widespread of an issue is apprenticeship ratios? I like to hear about it.

http://search.cga.state.ct.us/dtsearch.asp?cmd=getdoc&DocId=25366&Index=I:\zindex\2001&HitCount=0&hits=&hc=0&req=&Item=51

College of Trades

As I was working today on a medium sized commercial construction site, a $15m project with about 30 union and non-union workers installing steel studs and drywall, exterior stone work and electrical, I thought about what I had been reading and about what the guys on the job thought of it. I might ask the site super tomorrow if he knows anything about it, but apart from him I doubt any have heard of it.

The second question is, how much will the college of trades impact them. The answer should be, quite a lot, but I'm not so sure of that either. Apprentices perhaps, employers want more acceptable apprenticeship ratios. The average journeyman won't earn more, get better benefits or working conditions because of it.

Last comment; while recent immigrants should have a fairly easy path to getting to full employment, I really disagree with the idea that overseas recruitment is the answer to getting around worker shortage except perhaps in a few specific trades. It is much preferable to getting our own young people into the trades. Glutting the market, as has happened in the past, keeps wages down; they haven't increased around this area for years.

This is a topic we'll be watching for a long time.

Ontario's College of Trades

Legislation has just been passed in the Province of Ontario that sets up a new body to govern and promote skilled trades. This new organisation parallels existing self governing bodies for lawyers, doctors and teachers, and is supposed to better trades conditions and regulate apprenticeship ratios and who may be certified to work in both restricted and non-restricted trades.

As a tradesman who promotes skilled trades, I find this announcement both surprising and interesting, but I also feel that there are many unanswered questions. I don't see a need for more McGinty interference in small business. Since he's been Premier, WSIB has begun a scramble to fill their empty coffers, and Department of Labour over-enforcement, in my view, is already causing enough havoc.

Certainly, the trades are overdue for an increase in status, but my personal research into the realities of such efforts, usually for professionalisation, find that one of the main results is increasing fees to fund an oversized, over staffed head office; and I'm not alone in that concern. Such efforts never result in a pure gain, but rather a tradeoff whereby professional status is gained at a cost of independence. Also, a point that has been raised elsewhere, is that there must be an appropriate balance between union and non-union agendas. Just because non-union trades aren't organised as a group does not mean that their perspective and needs are any less valid.

I'm not anti-union; but I am concerned that it will be difficult for non-union voices to be heard over the well organized and funded union lobby who have already had time to prepare their case.

It does seem to be the intent that jouneymen, apprentices, and employers will have the lion's share of voice in trades affairs, and if that is actually the case, I see benefit. More to come on this issue, and hopefully from a positive angle. I'm all for promoting the trades!

Here's a link from a fellow blogger that comments, and includes leads to the government postings. Very timely reading.

http://post-secondary.blogspot.com/2009/10/ontario-passes-legislation-creating.html