Driving the message home, one apprenticeship at a time.

A global shortage of skilled workers can only be solved with a massive mindset shift, and it had better change soon, says Sharon Murdock, executive director of the Sudbury-Manitoulin Training and Adjustment Board (SM-TAB).

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Virtually every trade is experiencing problems with recruitment and the situation is universal, she says.

Those baby boomers who worked in manual trades didn't want their children doing the same thing.

"They were very successful in developing a mindset that looked down its nose at skilled trades," she says.

"Now we're trying madly to change overnight a mindset that took years to build."

She recalls speaking to a Grade 6 class some month's back. More specifically, she remembers listening to the children tell her that university was more important than college or an apprenticeship program.

Murdock wants parents, teachers and employers to realize college and apprenticeship programs, or directly entering the workforce, are different streams of aptitude development, not lesser ones.

"That whole attitude has to change," she muses. "Until it does, we're going to have trouble."

Some high school students may express to a teacher their desire to take a skilled trade and make a living of it only to be discouraged by them, she posits. The teacher, a university graduate, may have the same bias toward academic learning. If you're bright, the thinking goes, you shouldn't take a trade.

"I don't know about you, but I don,t want someone that isn,t bright installing the wires in my house."

Murdock is careful to name five equally important career streams high school students have to choose from: college, university, the world of work, apprenticeships and business (self-employment).

She adds most millwrights make more money coming right out of school than do university graduates.

There have been changes in the way the province regulates apprenticeships

aimed at improving the situation, however.

Many students who had to drop out of school or risk falling behind in their trade of choice no longer have to agonize over that decision, according to Sharon Orlack, the Rainbow District School Board's Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP) co-ordinator.

Students can now register for an apprenticeship program while still in school, and regulations require they complete Grade 12 (with a few exceptions, such as stone masonry) before picking up their tools full-time.

"The skills they learn while in school count toward their apprenticeship (certification), so they get a head start."

Another shift in apprenticeships concerns certification. Where traditionally tradesmen worked a certain number of hours on each skill, the system is now based on competency-based testing.

"Now, if your employer agrees you know how to do it, they sign off on a module for the Ministry." This avoids students having to spend 30 hours changing lug nuts if they figure it out the first time, for example.

Chelmsford Valley District Composite School co-operative teacher Paolo Salvador and Lasalle Secondary co-operative teacher Linda Urisk have seen this change vault their students from behind the pack to up to a decade ahead of it.

The average age of a trade apprentice in Canada is 27, while the average age of an OYAP participant is 18.

"It is important to reinforce they can start their careers while still in school," says Urisk. "The hours collected toward their trade accelerates their career by 8-10 years."

Making that connection with an employer is important, they agree, and the impression is made stronger by their ability to market themselves as a certified apprentice with a bank of experience.

"They can say, 'I've had experience working in the real world,'" says Orlack.

In many cases, the co-op experience amounts to a free probation/orientation period for the business owner.

"There are lots of employers out there looking for future employees," says Orlack. "Many students do their co-op during the school day and are hired part-time to work after school or on weekends. It greatly reduces training and recruitment costs."

Salvador adds the employer has the opportunity during that period to mould the student to the business philosophy and their unique way of doing things.

And most who get the chance are taking advantage; of the 24 students who graduated from Salvador's program in June, 14 were hired for the summer.

www.trainingboard.com

www.oyap.ca

BY CRAIG GILBERT

Northern Ontario Business