Ontario is hoping the promise of less time sitting in the classroom will convince more students to swap their notebooks for hard hats.
What happened: The Ontario government is launching a fast-track program in the fall designed to get more high school students into the trades, offering Grade 11 and 12 students the option of spending 80% of their would-be class time in apprenticeships.
- Students in the program — who will have over 144 different trades to choose from — will still have to take mandatory math and English courses.
Why it’s happening: The skilled labour shortage across Canada has been years in the making. With about 700,000 of the four million current tradespeople set to retire by 2030, things could get a lot worse without a fresh crop of talent ready to take the reins.
- Ontario’s labour minister says that in order to meet infrastructure demands, the province will need 500,000 more of these skilled workers over the next decade.
Why it matters: The shortage of skilled workers in Ontario and across the country has had a major ripple effect on everything from housing prices to bus fares, driving up costs for many Canadian households and businesses.
- One report found that small Canadian companies lost $38 billion in business due to labour shortages in 2022, while Canada’s economy as a whole lost almost $13 billion the same year because of a lack of manufacturing workers.
- Experts say that a shortage of mechanics has driven up the cost of public transportation and air travel, while a lack of construction workers has been a major factor in fewer purpose-built rental units being built.
Bottom line: After many years of pushing most students to pursue a university degree after high school, this new track could smooth an alternative path to a career in the trades.—LA