Apprenticeship training and the shortage of skilled labour in Manitoba is emerging as one of the main issues in the upcoming provincial election.
staff writer
Apprenticeship training and the shortage of skilled labour in Manitoba is emerging as one of the main issues in the upcoming provincial election.
“The construction market in Manitoba has had a really good run for the past five years and the main issue that keeps coming up is the lack of skilled trades,” Winnipeg Construction Association executive vice-president Ron Hambley.
“For the past five to 10 years, we have watched the apprenticeship rate carefully. We know that one of the constraints on apprenticeship training is the amount of space at Red River College”
As Premier Greg Selinger launched a provincial election campaign earlier this month, the Manitoba New Democratic Party (NDP) committed $60 million toward the construction of the first phase of a new Skilled Trades and Technology Centre for Red River College.
The expansion of this training facility is the centerpiece of the NDP’s plan to significantly increase the number of apprentices training across Manitoba.
The Manitoba Progressive Conservatives, led by Hugh McFadyen, are also promising to support Manitoba’s apprenticeship system, in order to increase the number of students receiving training. One of the ways the Conservatives propose to achieve this goal is by changing the journeyman to apprenticeship ratio to 1:2, which means more apprentices could enter the system.
There is currently a 1:1 journeyman to apprenticeship ratio.
The ratio prevents some graduates from finding the required on-the-job training with their preferred employer or in their home communities.
The Conservatives plan to make it more affordable for Manitoba companies to provide training for their employees, by providing a tax credit for 10 per cent of a company’s training costs.
The costs could be applied against up to 10 per cent of a company’s payroll tax payable for a given year.
Selinger has a plan to help private sector employers take on more apprentices by increasing hiring incentives to a maximum of $3,000 for level 1 and 2 apprentices and to a maximum of $5,000 for level 3, 4, and 5 apprentices.
This commitment of $9 million dollars a year will help ensure the success of the initiative because practical, on-the-job training and work experience is an essential part of apprenticeship.
The NDP has also promised to invest $4 million per year in rural colleges, increase hiring incentives for rural employers and expand access to skilled training opportunities for rural Manitobans.
The Construction Sector Council (CSC) estimates that employment in Manitoba will increase by more than 20 per cent between 2011 and 2014, with boilermakers, carpenters, estimators, managers, millwrights and electricians in tight supply.
Labour requirements in Manitoba for new construction requirements between 2011-2019 are estimated to increase the labour force by 4,300 workers.
Much of this labour force expansion will need to take place between 2011 and 2014.
The expected exit of 6,400 workers attributed to retirements and mortality raises the total labour force requirement to an estimated 10,700. With only 6,000 new entrants expected to join the industry during this period, it is estimated that a balance of 4,600 workers will need to be recruited from outside the local construction market to meet demand.
Campus Building B at Red River College currently houses most of the construction-trades training, but a recent internal study revealed it wasn’t feasible to upgrade or expand the facility.
For this reason, the college is planning a 320,000-square-foot, $176-million construction-trades training centre to be built over three years. It would house training for all construction trades, including plumbing, sheet metal, electrical, roofing, bricklaying and carpentry.
Red River currently has the capacity to train about 4,000 full-time students and apprentices in its construction trades programs. The new facility, when opened, would boost capacity by 25 per cent.
The premier launched Manitoba’s provincial election campaign, when he dropped the writ on Sept. 6.
Selinger's NDP is vying for a fourth term in power against the opposition Progressive Conservatives and Liberals.
The NDP formed government in 1999, when Gary Doer defeated former premier Gary Filmon’s Progressive Conservatives following a decade of Tory rule through the 1990s.
Red River College of Applied Arts, Science & Technology is Manitoba’s second largest post-secondary institution with more than 32,000 full-time, part-time and apprenticeship enrolments.
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