The Ontario Electrical League (OEL) is hailing the success of Ontario’s new simplified apprenticeship ratio regime one year after it was introduced, with a new survey indicating electrical contractors had pent-up demand and they responded to the new rules with significant new apprenticeship hiring.
Bill 47, the Making Ontario Open for Business Act, introduced 1:1 journeyperson to apprentice ratios last November. The OEL survey conducted in October indicated that 75 per cent of surveyed contractors have hired at least one apprentice, with an average of 2.95 apprentices hired per respondent.
“It’s good news for the young people who are getting registered and starting to get their hours,” said OEL president Stephen Sell. “One-to-one ratios not only allow people to land coveted apprenticeships, but it may just influence those that could be considering a career in the skilled trades, who are now much more inclined to pursue one knowing that a major roadblock has been lifted.”
Prior to the reforms in Bill 47, each trade had its own set of apprenticeship ratios to adhere to. In the electrical sector, the requirements were: for the first journeyperson, one apprentice; for the second journeyperson, an additional apprentice; for the third journeyperson, an additional apprentice; for the fourth journeyperson, an additional apprentice; for the next three additional journeypersons, an additional apprentice; for the next six additional journeypersons, an additional apprentice; and for every three additional journeypersons thereafter, an additional apprentice.
“That was main hurdle,” said Sell. “With the electrical ratio, you needed a calculator to figure out what you could have. So, simplifying it to one-to-one, however many journeymen you have, that’s how many apprentices you have.
“And especially when you get into multi-trade contractors. If you have plumbers and electricians, say, you have to figure out how many in each trade. So now it is consistent across the board. It is easy to understand for the market.”
The OEL lobbied the Ontario government last summer to introduce the one-to-one ratio and released a survey that showed 73 per cent of contractors would hire more apprentices if the ratio were simplified to one-to-one. Sell said the results of the recent research proved those contractors surveyed last year were serious with their hiring pledges.
“It is good to see that the numbers are consistent,” he said. “Here is the ask, the ask got implemented, and the results mirror what the ask was.”
Another positive, Sell noted, is that young people looking for positions are less like to be dissuaded from entering the trades by a waiting list.
“People who were stranded could not get registered, but now they are able to get registered,” he said. “Somebody who was a labourer and wanted to get signed as an apprentice, they couldn’t because nobody had room. Now they can actually start on the path.”
A total of 118 apprentices have been hired among the 40 respondents. Sell said most of the OEL’s members are smaller firms but one firm reported it had hired 18 apprentices since the ratio was changed and another had hired 12.
Critics of the one-to-one ratio regime said they were concerned that apprentices would not learn as well as they would with more supervision, and that safety would be threatened with inexperienced apprentices doing more work. Sell said there was no indication in reports to the OEL that skills training was suffering, and in general in the sector reports indicate that the large majority of unsafe incidents occur outside of the electrical occupation.
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