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Community Employment Resource Centre Trades
Following Information incorporated from: the HRSDC website; The
Skilled Trades Handbook (East What is
Apprenticeship?
Definition:
apprentice/n.1 (often attrib.) a person who is learning a trade from
an experienced “mentor” and by being employed in it for a period of time – an
agreement between the person who wants to learn the skill and the employer
who needs the skilled worker: “earning
while learning!” Apprenticeship training is
a way that a person gains skills for a specific type of occupation in the
skilled trades. This learning system
combines on-the-job experience with technical training to produce a certified
journeyperson in a specific trade. A
certified journeyperson trains apprentices about the trade (approximately 85%
of training is on the job), and at the same time the apprentices go to school
for classroom theory. Most exciting
is the fact that apprentices are working and earning wages while they are
learning the skills. There are over
200 apprenticeship programs in Apprenticeship is a vital,
but undervalued, dimension of post secondary education. Workers in skilled trades are essential to
building and maintaining To help with reaching this
target, the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP) offers full-time high
school students who are 16 years of age and older and have completed Grade 10
an opportunity to become registered apprentices while finishing high school
credits. Process: to
become an apprentice, a person must find a training sponsor or employer who
is willing to register and train them under an agreement or contract through
the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU). Upon completion of the two- to five-year
training period, the interim tests, required hours of the on-the-job work,
and qualifying exam, apprentices receive a Certificate of Qualification. Requirements may vary with the particular
trade. In the Fall of 2004 (exact
date yet to be determined), it is anticipated that the government will be
implementing an Apprenticeship Training Tax Credit ( EARAT
– Evaluating Academic Readiness for Apprenticeship Training
EARAT is an assessment process
designed to help apprentices and/or potential trainees to determine if they
have the appropriate academic skills, i.e. mathematics, communications, and
sciences, needed for the in-school portion of their apprenticeship training. This assessment is not to be used as an
exclusion from entering into an apprenticeship program, but rather to bring
attention to matters that should be given consideration in the selection
process. Staff of the MTCU (Ministry
of Training, Colleges and Universities) Work Place Support Services Branch
usually administers assessments. An individual may obtain
an EARAT assessment by requesting that one is administered by a “Training
Consultant” from the Workplace Support Services Branch as part of a process
of trade selection or once they have decided upon a specific
apprenticeship. The assessment report
categorizes the results of each skill area through 3 terms (Knowledge
Demonstrated, Partial Knowledge and Apparent Difficulty). The results do not illustrate a pass or fail
status. For areas of weakness,
assistance to improve can be obtained through EARAT skills sheets, through
the school board, through college continued education programs or through
literacy councils. For further questions,
contact: Ministry of Training,
Colleges and Universities Loan
for Tools Program
To further assist
apprentices, the government has created Loans for Tools Program. The purpose
of the program is to offer new apprentices an interest-free loan for
the duration of apprenticeship training to help them buy tools,
equipment, and manuals or code books that they need to perform the specific
trade in which they are registered. Red
Seal Program
The Red Seal Program was
established in 1958 to provide greater mobility across ® Graduating from a recognized provincial/territorial
apprenticeship training program or obtaining journeyperson level
certificate from the province or territory ® Passing the Inter-provincial Standards Exam for the
specific trade (there are 45 trades included in the Red Seal Program, which
is administered under the guidance of the Canadian Council of Directors of
Apprenticeship (CCDA) through the Workplace Support Services Branch). A National Occupational
Analysis (NOA), developed for each Red Seal trade, is used as a base document
for the development of inter-provincial standard examinations and curriculum. For further information,
contact: Information Available
at CERC:
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