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More opportunities needed for young people
to apprentice

Sixty five percent of our high school students do not pursue a college or university education. Not everyone wants to be a doctor, lawyer or teacher.

Meantime, there is a huge shortage of electricians, plumbers, carpenters and mechanics. Most of the trades need a Grade 12 diploma.

To start an apprenticeship you must find employment with a company that has skilled tradesmen (journeymen) who are willing to provide on-site job training. You apprentice for five years with three two-month sessions at a community college for the theory component.

All well and good - except there's a Catch 22 here. Try finding a company that will sign on the dotted line they will provide the apprenticeship training.

The tradesmen I interviewed told me the same litany of complaints. No one wants to spend the money to educate our high school graduates. Instead, if one company needs a skilled trades person they usually steal from another company.

London industries have trades people but few apprentices. Kellogg Canada Inc. , for example, has a work force of 600 with 100 designated as skilled trades people - millwrights, electricians, steam fitters. The last apprentice that was hired was 13 years ago.

London Transit employs 95 diesel mechanics) but not one apprentice. Mechanics do quite well; they earn $25 per hour plus medical benefits, a clothing allowance and a great pension plan. It sure beats pumping gas for minimum wage.

Rod Cameron, dean of applied training and motor power at Fanshawe College agrees the road for high school graduates looking for an apprenticeship is very hard.

Compounding the problem is the fact Canadian industry is no longer able to lure skilled workers from England and Europe. European workers are doing quite well and have no need to immigrate across the ocean to enjoy a decent life style.

Len Greenwell, chairman of apprenticeship for 150 Iron Workers in the London area told me that his union trains their own students with a 1:5 ratio of journeymen to apprentices. Sadly, they are the exception.

Everyone admits it is a crying shame that our young men and women are shut out of the trades. No job, no apprenticeship and no tradesmen. Canadians suffer the consequences of the lack of skilled craftsmen. We will have delays and higher costs for construction companies, manufacturers and other labour-orientated businesses.

The Ministry of Trades faxed me six full sheets entitled, "Projections of Retirements by Occupations for 2000-2010." Scary stuff.

One third of our skilled trades people in 1996 were 45 years and older. Today they are 53 plus. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what's going to happen.

Mr. Cameron has a simple solution to help get rid of the bottleneck and provide meaningful jobs and apprenticeships for our youth. "The federal government should provide tax incentives for companies that employ apprentices," he says.

There is no federal-provincial agreement on training between Ontario and the powers in Ottawa. It is all about politics. Pity.

 


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