Apprenticeship more flexible, employers more say in curriculum
British Columbia is proposing a massive overhaul of its apprenticeship training system that would recognize specific competencies without the need to complete full training programs.
Under the new model, outlined in a discussion paper released last month, a trade would be modularized or broken down into specific competencies to make training more flexible and less time-consuming. The new model would see less government involvement, with apprentices having the responsibility for scheduling their training, and employers playing a bigger role in developing training programs.
Jim Sinclair, president of the British Columbia Federation of Labour, said modularizing “flies directly in the face of what it takes to be competitive in today’s world. Most employers have told me that the more skilled the workers are, and the more broadly trained, the more useful and marketable they will be.” Breaking a trade down into competencies and allowing the employer more leeway in defining a curriculum would only let employers off the hook for not giving learners the full training they need, Sinclair added.
In response to the criticism, Minister of Advanced Education Shirley Bond said change is needed in a system where half of apprentices fail to complete the four-year training. “If the concern is that we will de-skill the trades, we just don’t believe that’s the case. We want to look at how credentials are acquired and we want the system to be more flexible,” she said in an interview with Canadian HR Reporter.
There are about 16,500 apprentices in the system, costing the province about $70 million a year. Funding will be maintained at the same level for the next three years, Bond added.
Despite its focus on industry needs, some industry representatives are also apprehensive of modularization. As Keith Sashaw, president of the Vancouver Regional Construction Association, puts it, “It can be very difficult for the worker to engage in improving his skills sets if an employer is interested only in a narrow band of training that meets specific needs.
“To what extent will the worker be encouraged and given the opportunity to broaden his skills sets so that he becomes more skilled?”
These concerns are more acute in certain industries like construction, where a journeyperson would typically move to different work sites every few weeks or months. In stable work environments, the new model would be useful as it allows a learner to gain skills sets of several different trades, Sashaw noted. In a mill operation, for example, instead of having to call in both an electrician and a carpenter to replace a machine, mill managers would now be able to teach one learner the needed skills sets from several different trades.
But giving apprentices recognition for skills outside his trade, as the paper proposes, would also mean that the compulsory trades system has to be dismantled. In B.C., there are 11 trades where only journeypersons and registered apprentices are allowed, by law, to do the work. Removing this barrier might result in compromising work quality, as well as safety, added Sashaw.
Rod Goy, training co-ordinator for the Electrical Contractor Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, local 213, said removing the compulsory trades system might also curtail labour mobility.
“Every single geographical jurisdiction surrounding British Columbia uses a compulsory trade system. So in the new era, if a person is working in the trade as an electrical helper or a learner — which means they’re not registered as an apprentice — and if they want to work in Alberta, they can’t do it,” said Goy, who’s also on the transition advisory committee to advise the ministry on ongoing changes.
Critics of the new proposal also raise concerns over governance. The current authority overseeing apprenticeship training — the Industry Training and Apprenticeship Commission (ITAC) — is being gradually dismantled with the removal of the board and the closing of 10 of its 16 offices last year.
While the discussion paper offers little detail about the new body that will replace ITAC, the successor will be smaller in scale. Some current ITAC responsibilities like formalizing training agreements between employer and apprentices will be replaced by online services. Said Bond: “Students in most post-secondary institutes self-register online everyday. We’re looking at the process to see how it can be applied.”
But one ITAC employee, who didn’t want to reveal his name for fear of reprisal, said the apprenticeship system is much more complex than other training models. For each apprenticeship agreement, ITAC staff would have to evaluate the employer, find out if it can provide the training and handle the problems that come up.
“Remember that we’re talking about apprentices, who are not the cream of the academic crop. They might lack the required education and need some help overcoming the hurdles like passing exams and even doing placement exams,” said the ITAC employee.
And with a scaled-down operation, ITAC staff just haven’t had time to take care of the basics, he added.
“In one recent case, we found out that the employer where one apprentice was registered was actually a shell company. It was just a phone number that the apprentice had given us because he wanted the qualification ticket. This went on for six months but it was just a fluke that we discovered it.”
Under the new model, outlined in a discussion paper released last month, a trade would be modularized or broken down into specific competencies to make training more flexible and less time-consuming. The new model would see less government involvement, with apprentices having the responsibility for scheduling their training, and employers playing a bigger role in developing training programs.
Jim Sinclair, president of the British Columbia Federation of Labour, said modularizing “flies directly in the face of what it takes to be competitive in today’s world. Most employers have told me that the more skilled the workers are, and the more broadly trained, the more useful and marketable they will be.” Breaking a trade down into competencies and allowing the employer more leeway in defining a curriculum would only let employers off the hook for not giving learners the full training they need, Sinclair added.
In response to the criticism, Minister of Advanced Education Shirley Bond said change is needed in a system where half of apprentices fail to complete the four-year training. “If the concern is that we will de-skill the trades, we just don’t believe that’s the case. We want to look at how credentials are acquired and we want the system to be more flexible,” she said in an interview with Canadian HR Reporter.
There are about 16,500 apprentices in the system, costing the province about $70 million a year. Funding will be maintained at the same level for the next three years, Bond added.
Despite its focus on industry needs, some industry representatives are also apprehensive of modularization. As Keith Sashaw, president of the Vancouver Regional Construction Association, puts it, “It can be very difficult for the worker to engage in improving his skills sets if an employer is interested only in a narrow band of training that meets specific needs.
“To what extent will the worker be encouraged and given the opportunity to broaden his skills sets so that he becomes more skilled?”
These concerns are more acute in certain industries like construction, where a journeyperson would typically move to different work sites every few weeks or months. In stable work environments, the new model would be useful as it allows a learner to gain skills sets of several different trades, Sashaw noted. In a mill operation, for example, instead of having to call in both an electrician and a carpenter to replace a machine, mill managers would now be able to teach one learner the needed skills sets from several different trades.
But giving apprentices recognition for skills outside his trade, as the paper proposes, would also mean that the compulsory trades system has to be dismantled. In B.C., there are 11 trades where only journeypersons and registered apprentices are allowed, by law, to do the work. Removing this barrier might result in compromising work quality, as well as safety, added Sashaw.
Rod Goy, training co-ordinator for the Electrical Contractor Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, local 213, said removing the compulsory trades system might also curtail labour mobility.
“Every single geographical jurisdiction surrounding British Columbia uses a compulsory trade system. So in the new era, if a person is working in the trade as an electrical helper or a learner — which means they’re not registered as an apprentice — and if they want to work in Alberta, they can’t do it,” said Goy, who’s also on the transition advisory committee to advise the ministry on ongoing changes.
Critics of the new proposal also raise concerns over governance. The current authority overseeing apprenticeship training — the Industry Training and Apprenticeship Commission (ITAC) — is being gradually dismantled with the removal of the board and the closing of 10 of its 16 offices last year.
While the discussion paper offers little detail about the new body that will replace ITAC, the successor will be smaller in scale. Some current ITAC responsibilities like formalizing training agreements between employer and apprentices will be replaced by online services. Said Bond: “Students in most post-secondary institutes self-register online everyday. We’re looking at the process to see how it can be applied.”
But one ITAC employee, who didn’t want to reveal his name for fear of reprisal, said the apprenticeship system is much more complex than other training models. For each apprenticeship agreement, ITAC staff would have to evaluate the employer, find out if it can provide the training and handle the problems that come up.
“Remember that we’re talking about apprentices, who are not the cream of the academic crop. They might lack the required education and need some help overcoming the hurdles like passing exams and even doing placement exams,” said the ITAC employee.
And with a scaled-down operation, ITAC staff just haven’t had time to take care of the basics, he added.
“In one recent case, we found out that the employer where one apprentice was registered was actually a shell company. It was just a phone number that the apprentice had given us because he wanted the qualification ticket. This went on for six months but it was just a fluke that we discovered it.”
