Unfortunately, the Conservatives decided to split the apprenticeship system into two pieces of legislation:

(a) The Apprenticeship Certification Act which is a competency based model covers the Industrial, Service, Retail and Public Sectors. This Act is destroying our traditional system of Apprenticeship and Skills Trades by dismantling what we know as a whole trade and encouraging pieces of the trade to be set up in lieu of the traditional trades.

(b) The Trades Qualification and Apprenticeship Act which is the traditional time based model remains in place exclusively for the building trades.  However, we now see many new building trades’ designations falling under the Apprenticeship Certification Act instead of the TQAA.

To date, the Ontario Liberal Government has kept these two pieces of legislation separate.  There are signs of the damage going further, rather than being reversed. The Government is concentrating on its goal of producing 26,000 apprentices yearly rather than worrying about the retention and completion rates of apprentices working in skilled whole trades.

It is noted that data shows the number of apprentices that fully complete and become skilled journeypersons is not available from the Ministry responsible for apprenticeship training. The completion of apprenticeship programs is documented by our affiliates in an efficient and accurate manner. In fact, the Liberals are adding occupations to the list of trades under the Apprenticeship Certification Act which are clearly not trades.

In order to bump up their number of registered apprentices, the Liberal government is adding occupations to the list of trades under the Apprenticeship Certification Act which are clearly not trades. In doing so, the Act also confuses the definition of traditional skilled trades with occupations or professions. For example, the Province has added Child and Youth Workers, Early Childhood Educators and Educational Assistants as trades under the ACA. While these occupations are recognized as worthwhile and invaluable occupations, the reality is that this action by the Liberal Government just adds thousands of students to the Province’s roster of Registered Apprentices while not being a trade.

Most of the workers who pursue the above occupations as careers are not treated like traditional apprentices. Most of their on-the-job training is done without pay. Most of the students are from designated groups, particularly women. Tactics like these are used by the government as a claim that something is being done to address a pending skills shortage.

Another way of bumping up the numbers of actual apprentices is to use the ACA to dismantle whole trades into separate skill sets and creating apprentices who will only learn a piece of the trade.

An example that proves the ACA fragments traditional trades is the classification of a tool and die maker which comes under the TQAA. The province has introduced a “new” trade called Tool/Tooling Maker under the ACA. It was created because there are limited numbers of “die” operations in Ontario where apprentices can learn about the die portion of the trade.

The ACA is “competency” based and apprentices are required to complete the WHOLE trade according to the standards set out under the ACA in order to be certified.

On a regular basis, apprentices find it difficult to complete the whole trade because there are very few “die” operations in Ontario where they can get the hands on experience. As a result, the province has “de-skilled” the Tool and Die Maker and created a new trade called Tool/Tooling Maker.

In order to complete the skill sets of the whole trade to become a journeyperson in the tool and die trade, one has to complete 2,000 hours of the required 8,000 hours for the tooling maker. They are required to pass a separate exam for the die portion of the trade. Under the TQAA, a tool and die maker is a four year apprenticeship program.

The apprentice designs, makes, modifies, and repairs dies, forms, cutting tools, gauges, jigs, and fixtures for the stamping industry. They work with precision machines and equipment to make tooling and dies. Once certified, workers have mobility and can work anywhere in Canada.

Traditionally, apprenticeship in a trade was classified as time based not competency based.  One of the benefits of having trades designated and governed under the original TQAA is the regulations which govern the way trades are established. The health and safety of workers and the public is given priority.