Trade school or apprenticeships more popular than university in preparing for career by 2050
HR professionals should prepare now for a larger pool of trades-oriented applicants.
That’s because 50 per cent of Canadians now see trade school or apprenticeship as the best way to prepare a child for a career by 2050, compared to 37 per cent who favour university, reports Embark, a digital education savings and planning company.
The report, conducted with Angus Reid, found support for trades peaks among Gen X at 48 per cent, while falling sharply among Gen Z to 22 per cent.
"We were hearing from our parents that this is the path that they're coaching their kids towards — and it ended up being true," says Andrew Lo, CEO at Embark.
Lo links the shift to Canada's construction and infrastructure demands.
"Canada is in build mode. We need a lot more housing, and that's all trades. We're building data centres from AI, and that's all trades. We need more people working in healthcare, and some of that is trades as well," he says.
According to a 2022 3M Canada report, while 96 per cent of Canadians agree that the country's workforce needs more skilled trades workers, 76 per cent say they would never pursue a skilled trade for themselves.
Career readiness and education paths
|
Statistic |
Trend |
|
20% |
Canadians who believe today's children are being prepared for careers in 2050 |
|
57% |
Canadians who actively disagree children are being prepared |
|
86% |
Canadians who expect employer-valued skills to change significantly over the next 25 years |
|
80% |
Canadians who believe workers will need to invest in education and training throughout their careers, not just at the start |
|
41% |
Canadians who chose trade or vocational school alone as the single best path |
|
24% |
Canadians who chose a university graduate or professional program alone |
|
13% |
Canadians who chose a university undergraduate degree alone |
|
12% |
Canadians who chose community college or CEGEP alone |
|
9% |
Canadians who chose an apprenticeship program alone |
AI adds urgency to trades shift
The report finds 86 per cent of Canadians expect the skills employers value to change significantly over the next 25 years, yet only 20 per cent believe children are being prepared for those changes.
Lo says the same uncertainty extends into current trades and technical workplaces. "It's still yet to be seen whether AI will replace all of those jobs or actually create new ones. And hence, being ready to retrain and reeducate is going to be key," he says.
The report identified clean energy, energy retrofits, and healthcare-adjacent trades as likely growth fields over the next 25 years, alongside AI and data science roles, reinforcing the case for trades-focused employers to plan training pipelines well in advance of demand.
Employers urged to formalize training
Asked what role HR professionals should play as trades-track applicants grow, Lo says employers must build structured learning opportunities rather than leave AI adoption to chance.
"HR professionals need to be supportive of learning for their employees to learn new things, and create defined programs that allow them to do that," he says.
He adds that staff should be given dedicated space to experiment with new tools. "Create programs where employees can experiment with new AI technology. And do some tests. Do a lot of testing and learning," Lo says.
Lo points to Embark's own internal AI use policy and annual hackathon as examples of that structured approach. "We take time off our regular day jobs and carve out time to actually do it," he says, adding that the company "financially" supports employee experimentation time.
Just 15 per cent of Canadians would trust AI to help make a career decision, the report found.
The federal government and some provincial counterparts have recently announced funding to expand training for skilled trades.
Ottawa previously announced its Team Canada Strong initiative, a new nationwide effort to recruit, train, and hire 80,000 to 100,000 new skilled trade workers by 2030-31.
