Annex A of the Canada-Ontario Labour Market Partnership Agreement sets out the areas in which the federal and provincial governments intend to cooperate to “expand and enhance apprenticeship.” As such, we have grouped our issues for discussion under the themes listed in Annex A.

1. Enhancing and expanding access to apprenticeship:

Defining Apprenticeship

The Ontario Federation of Labour believes that it is critical to preserve the integrity of the apprenticeship program through the maintenance of whole trades certified as a matter of law and providing inter-provincial transportability through the Red Seal program.

Apprenticeship must be understood as an employment-based relationship where 80-90% of learning is completed through hands-on, adequately paid employment under the supervision of a regulated minimum number of qualified journeypersons; the remaining 10-20% of class training is undertaken at either public community colleges or non-profit Building Trades Training Centres.

Without this understanding, there is a risk that all general and unregulated work experience, be it co-op programs, practicums or summer and after-school work experience, will be labelled as apprenticeship. This is particularly a concern in light of Bill 52 An Act to amend the Education Act that opens the door to “equivalent learning” in exchange for secondary school credit.

In addition, a loose definition of what constitutes apprenticeship will drain critical public resources away from bone fide apprenticeship programs, while the value of certification in the trades will be eroded. Confusion between fully qualified trades people and partially qualified certificate-holders could well leave both employers and the general public at risk.