How to Train the Next Generation of Tradespeople?

In its effort to increase youth interest in skilled trades, the B.C. government plans to double the number of high school students enrolled in an industry-training program to 5,000 students by June 2017.

The program is called Accelerated Credit Enrolment in Industry Training, better known as ACE-IT. The program, funded by the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training, is offered at high schools and post-secondary campuses across the province. For example, if a student completed an ACE-IT welding class, two credits would be earned; one for high school and another for post-secondary trades' credit.

The government has said it will need to fill one million jobs by 2022. Almost half of them are to be trades positions.

But Randy Grey, head of the British Columbia Technology Education Association, says the government needs to change the way the ACE-IT program is offered -- and funded -- if it is going to meet its one million jobs target by 2022. More than half of those jobs will be created from retirements set to happen between 2018 and 2020, Grey said.

He argues that if the government were to put more money into high school shop programs, more students would become interested in the trades and enrol in programs like ACE-IT.

To speed up training and get more students interested in trades, the government should direct the money it now spends on ACE-IT training programs exclusively into high schools, Grey said. The money -- up to $3,200 per student enrolled in ACE-IT -- would help update shop equipment, supply materials, hire more trades teachers, and offer more in-school training so students don't have to travel to post-secondary campuses that are sometimes hundreds of kilometres away.

"Education is there to help you move on with life," said Grey, adding the only mandatory Grade 12 course for students interested in trades is English or Communications 12; the rest are electives.

"You would think those electives would help students move on in life. That's what trades programs [like ACE-IT] do."

As career programs co-ordinator for the Comox Valley school district, Grey oversees the district's 50 students enrolled in ACE-IT programs. Part of his job includes helping students find apprenticeships after graduation. Most skilled trades in B.C. have four levels of training and it takes about six years to obtain a Red Seal trade certification, which is required by all provinces but B.C. to practice most trades.

Eighty per cent of that trades training is on the job and 20 per cent is in the classroom.

Grey said that of the 50 students in his district enrolled in the ACE-IT program, about 47 will finish the high school program.

Only 34 per cent of trades apprentices -- including those who don't start training until after high school -- finish their training within six years.

After decades of budget cuts in B.C.'s 60 school districts, the equipment in high school shops is old and money for supplies is low. For example, where once a class of 23 high school students in a technology education course could each make a TV cabinet, today classes of 30 students make wooden step stools or small boxes.

Yet colleges limit their ACE-IT courses based on the space and instructor availability.

"If I want to increase the number of ACE-IT kids at a college program, I have to ask if [the college will] give me the seats," said Grey, "and usually they go 'this is your limit, you can't put more in.'"

Need certification

The Ministry of Education argues that it isn't possible to put ACE-IT funding solely into high school shops because while the Crown corporation that co-ordinates the province's trades training -- the Industry Training Authority -- receives $100-million annually from government, it isn't part of the Education Ministry's budget.

"Reaching our goal of 5,000 ACE-IT spaces isn't about putting students in seats," adds a ministry spokesperson in an emailed statement. "It's about finding students who are passionate about pursuing their career in skills and trades."

To attract more students to trades the ministry has launched Skills Exploration 10-12 courses in high schools, offering an introduction to plumbing, electrical, carpentry and automotive training as a pre-cursor to the ACE-IT program, although it isn't mandatory.

But Skills Exploration and technical education courses in general don't offer students any trades certification. If a student wants certification, ACE-IT is an option -- unless the program has reached its enrolment limit.