Boots Versus Suits

National Effort to Polish Image of Blue-collar Work Blaine Sheppard’s parents thought their son was making a mistake in pursuing a career as a carpenter. Their boy, they figured, was “too smart” to spend a lifetime as a tradesman in a blue-collar occupation. The Sheppards, of Goose Bay, Labrador, had succumbed, as many parents across Canada do, to the pervasive idea that blue-collar work is not a desirable career choice for their children. Tell that to the Canadian tradespeople who manufacture transportation equipment: their average weekly earnings in 2000: $929.95, well above the all-industry average of $626.45. Construction-trades workers pocketed almost $100 a week more than the average worker. Blue-collar work is undergoing a major image make-over as national and provincial governments collaborate with private-sector groups to counter the well-entrenched biases that surround employment in the trades. In addition to better-than-average wages, they can cite hard facts about current and ongoing demand across the nation for tradespeople. British Columbia needs carpenters and electricians; booming Alberta is begging for all trades, particularly masons, electricians, welders and equipment operators; Ontario can’t get enough carpenters, bricklayers and tile-setters; Atlantic Canada requires bricklayers and electricians; Manitoba and Saskatchewan need masons, electricians, equipment operators and labourers; Quebec is sans carpenters, plumbers, gas fitters, electricians and labourers. “There is still a prediction of huge labour shortages due to an aging workforce, a decline in the number of skilled trades people immigrating and few youth entering apprenticeship programs,” reports Skills Canada. The agency, a national, not-for-profit one, is dedicated to making trade and technical careers a first-choice career option for young Canadians. Its mandate necessarily means getting the word out to elementary and secondary school students –and their parents–that trades and technical jobs aren’t inferior to the professions or the many white-collar jobs found in the vast world of business and government. Blaine Sheppard’s parents came around after watching him win the 2000 regional Skills Competition in carpentry, one of many now sponsored around the country by Skills Canada and its partners. Just as in amateur sports, the regional win qualified Blaine for the provincial-level Skills Competition. His parents were on hand to watch proudly as their son won that event, thereby qualifying for the national Skills Competition that year in Quebec. Blaine placed third in the hyper-competitive national event. His accomplishments dispelled any doubts the Sheppards had about their son’s choice of occupation. Greg Beselaere of the Ontario office of Skills Canada says trades and technical jobs are widely considered to be “boring, dirty and low-paying.” The Canadian Labour and Business Forum has identified the negative image of trades careers as a serious problem. That view was reinforced by the results of a survey of senior elementary and secondary school children done in late 1999 by Human Resources Development Canada and Conestoga College. Skills Canada has prepared facts to counter the persistent myths about trades: Myth: Skilled-trade jobs are not stable. Fact: They are among the most stable of career choices. Given the current and projected demand, many tradespeople have their pick of jobs. Furthermore, their skills are highly transferable in the global economy. Myth: Skilled trade jobs are dirty and noisy. Fact: Many trades and technical jobs require working with sophisticated technology in excellent working conditions. Myth: Skilled-trade jobs are not challenging. Fact: Tradespeople must be smart and adaptable. It takes as long or longer to acquire a trade as it does to acquire an honours undergraduate degree at university. And apprentices get paid while acquiring their knowledge and work experience. Myth: Skilled trade jobs are low-paying. Fact: As mentioned above, most tradespeople’s earnings are well above those of the average Canadian worker. And many tradespeople have the freedom to become self-employed entrepreneurs. But the myths persist. “These jobs are still cursed with a social premise that skilled trades are for people who are not smart, or people who like to get dirty,” says Claire LeSage, a regional events co-ordinator for the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program. “Ever since our students were children, they’ve seen the cartoon plumber with his pants slung too low and been taught that skilled trades were not glamorous jobs. But this is just not true anymore.” Beselaere cites a broader cultural bias that confers a preferred status on those who attend university. Surveys of students entering Grade 9 show that 70% intend to go on to university. The reality is that only 30% of them do. Technical programs and facilities in high schools across Canada are barely existent, compared to what they were 30 years ago. The walls of high-school guidance offices are plastered with colourful posters enticing students to apply to this or that university, but very few that seek to recruit students to the trades. Beselaere, LaSage and an army of like-minded people across the country are trying to change that. They are making pupils in elementary schools and students in high schools aware of their full range of career options, with an emphasis on trades and technology. They are making presentations to tens of thousands of students across the country; they are sponsoring the regional, provincial and national competitions that test the skills of aspiring tradespeople; and they are lining up female tradespeople to serve as mentors for young women considering jobs in trades and technical areas. Females students are a particularly important potential source of skilled workers. Women are grossly under-represented in the skilled workforce across Canada. As an example, in the machining trades in British Columbia, fewer than 2% are women; in New Brunswick, fewer than 3%. In Ontario, the provincial home-builders association estimates that the average age of unionized tradespeople is now over 50 and they are retiring in record numbers. The Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association released a survey in 2000 showing that 27% of its skilled work force is between 50 and 59 years of age, with 5% over age 60. Baby-boomer retirements are a large reason for the national effort to re-make the image of blue-collar work, but not the sole one. The bigger reality flowing from the great numbers who will continue to exit the work force is that the shortage of skilled trades and technical workers is a drag on the nation’s economy. A third of Canada’s leading manufacturing firms reported to their national association that they are holding off on expansion plans because of a critical shortage of skilled labour. Sixty per cent of large Canadian companies have experienced project delays due to a shortage of technology professionals. Eighty-three per cent of respondents to a Conference Board of Canada survey indicated that they were experiencing a shortage of skilled labour. The shortfall has been estimated at no less than 50,000 unfilled jobs. In Ontario, the government has launched several initiatives to attract young people into trades and technical work. In its budget last year, the government committed an additional $25 million by 2005-2006 to provide trades and technical training for 6,000-8,000 people. It has reformed the apprenticeship system, which was unchanged since 1964, with a plan to double the number of new entrants to apprenticeship programs (16,000 new apprentices will be registered this year). It also offers tax credits for companies that provide apprenticeships in certain trades and a loan program for new apprentices to acquire tools. By September this year, the government has mandated that all of its school boards will offer a Youth Apprenticeship Program, which enables students who have completed 16 credits to register for apprenticeships and obtain basic training while still in school. Beselaere says parents, teachers and guidance counsellors need to be made more informed of the realities of career options in the trades and technical arenas. “Many young people make career decisions based on information provided for them by parents, teachers and guidance counsellors,” he says. “How the older generation perceives careers in these fields is important.” As it stands, important work across the country is not getting done at the pace it should because of critical labour shortages and many business are delaying expansion plans. “I believe that the implications on our economy could be profound,” Beselaere says. “The most obvious would be our ability to compete on the world stage. Our greatest resource is our people. Without skilled workers, production would decrease, innovation would suffer and, most importantly, the quality of life we are accustomed to would not be the same.” LaSage concurs: “Skilled trades are imperative to our way of life. The buildings we live in were built by a tradespersons, the sinks we wash in were made by a tradesperson, the cars we drive to work–also created, designed and assembled by tradespeople. Skilled trades are crucial and fundamental to our society and economy. As long as there are people, there will be a demand in skilled trades.”

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