( Addendum 25.08.13 The following is excerpted from a Canadian Press article. The slanty script is my commentary. Please read this for clarification.)
The Canadian Press
Published Friday, August 16, 2013 5:07PM EDT
CALGARY -- Federal Employment Minister Jason Kenney says a chronic shortage of skilled trades workers, especially in Alberta's oilsands, can only be solved by a major influx of carpenters, electricians and welders from outside of Canada.
Because as we all know, Canadian teens want to grow up to be rocket scientists, politicians, and video-game designers, not carpenters, welders, and electricians. That's why governments across this land have connived for forty years to shut down high school vocational programs.
The program is aimed at people who want to become permanent residents based on being qualified in a skilled trade. To apply they must have work experience in a specific trade and meet several other requirements.
The program is aimed at providing skilled trades without having to invest in Canadians.
Kenney said one of the challenges facing Canada is that young people are not going into the trades and its creating an "acute shortage" of electricians, welders and boilermakers.
They are not going into skilled trades because they have been told for generations that a good future requires a university education. Nor have employers been encouraged to train apprentices.
"Because Canada has always been a country of immigration we believe we can use our immigration programs much better to attract tradesmen who have practical skills and can literally help us build our country," he said.
With the political will we could easily train the Canadians we need to build Canada.
"We see some of the most acute labour shortages in the construction trades in the Athabasca oilsands region because we're talking about multibillion dollar mega construction projects there. We simply do not have enough qualified trades people in Canada to fill those labour needs."
It's just so much easier to import them willy-nilly from around the world rather than invest in training Canadians.
"According to different industry councils, we're looking at shortages of hundreds of thousands of construction trades people in the next decade," he said.
We have 1.5 million Canadians unemployed. It is a disgrace to import workers. Politicians should stop short-changing Canadians and start working for their constituents.
Showing posts with label skilled trades shortage in Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label skilled trades shortage in Canada. Show all posts
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
Canadian PM gets dangerously close to having a good idea
I know! I share your sense of shock!
Big Steve is pissed that there's way too many Canadians getting BA degrees, and not nearly enough becoming welders.
As a welder with a BA degree I have to admit this is probably the first time I've found myself in agreement with the PM. It was a problem twenty years ago and it's a bigger problem today.
Thus far the only measure taken by the Harper gang to remedy the situation is making it easier for employers to bring skilled workers in from other countries. There's always been bullshit aplenty about training more Canadians for these jobs, but the consternation has never gone beyond the bullshit stage.
You get a welding ticket to pay the mortgage and put dinner on the table.
You get a BA degree to meet hot chicks in the Psych 101 course.
We'll see if Big Steve follows through.
Big Steve is pissed that there's way too many Canadians getting BA degrees, and not nearly enough becoming welders.
As a welder with a BA degree I have to admit this is probably the first time I've found myself in agreement with the PM. It was a problem twenty years ago and it's a bigger problem today.
Thus far the only measure taken by the Harper gang to remedy the situation is making it easier for employers to bring skilled workers in from other countries. There's always been bullshit aplenty about training more Canadians for these jobs, but the consternation has never gone beyond the bullshit stage.
You get a welding ticket to pay the mortgage and put dinner on the table.
You get a BA degree to meet hot chicks in the Psych 101 course.
We'll see if Big Steve follows through.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Words of wisdom from Frank Hasenfratz
The Globe and Mail had a brief interview with Linamar Corp founder Frank Hasenfratz today. I'd link you to it but getting around their paywall is rather time consuming, and I think I can give you the gist of his wisdom without the link. I suppose I could start paying, but hell, I pay enough for their paper when I pick it up at the corner store. I shouldn't have to pay them twice.
But back to Frank.
Frank is one of those old school capitalists who made his money the old fashioned way; by working really hard at making things other people were willing to pay for. In his case it's been mainly auto parts, with a variety of other precision machined goodies thrown into the mix.
During my high school years Frank's original factory, one concession over, right beside his house, was the employer of last resort for high school drop-outs and others on the lower rungs of the employability ladder. While I was a high school drop-out I always had the good fortune of finding better paying gigs than what Frank had on offer.
That story took a turn in the 1980's when Frank took his company public. He offered pre-IPO shares to his employees and quite a few took him up on it.
And quite a few of them became millionaires.
But that's quite beyond the ken of Frank's interview with the Globe today.
On the subject of training skilled workers, Frank had this to say; everybody pays lip service to it but nobody does anything about it.
Exactly!
That's what I've been saying for at least 25 years! In Canada, about 20% of companies who employ skilled trades have any sort of training/apprenticeship program to develop skilled workers. The other 80% of employers are content to poach them from the 20%.
And what sort of a leadership role has government taken in creating a skilled work force? Aside from the aforementioned lip service, absolutely nothing.
In fact, the government bends over backwards to accommodate employers when they apply to bring foreign trades into the country.
Meanwhile, well over a million Canadians are unemployed.
I'm aware that working as a welder or a carpenter isn't everybody's cup of tea, but for the sake of our future, isn't it time we got serious about this?
But back to Frank.
Frank is one of those old school capitalists who made his money the old fashioned way; by working really hard at making things other people were willing to pay for. In his case it's been mainly auto parts, with a variety of other precision machined goodies thrown into the mix.
During my high school years Frank's original factory, one concession over, right beside his house, was the employer of last resort for high school drop-outs and others on the lower rungs of the employability ladder. While I was a high school drop-out I always had the good fortune of finding better paying gigs than what Frank had on offer.
That story took a turn in the 1980's when Frank took his company public. He offered pre-IPO shares to his employees and quite a few took him up on it.
And quite a few of them became millionaires.
But that's quite beyond the ken of Frank's interview with the Globe today.
On the subject of training skilled workers, Frank had this to say; everybody pays lip service to it but nobody does anything about it.
Exactly!
That's what I've been saying for at least 25 years! In Canada, about 20% of companies who employ skilled trades have any sort of training/apprenticeship program to develop skilled workers. The other 80% of employers are content to poach them from the 20%.
And what sort of a leadership role has government taken in creating a skilled work force? Aside from the aforementioned lip service, absolutely nothing.
In fact, the government bends over backwards to accommodate employers when they apply to bring foreign trades into the country.
Meanwhile, well over a million Canadians are unemployed.
I'm aware that working as a welder or a carpenter isn't everybody's cup of tea, but for the sake of our future, isn't it time we got serious about this?
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