January 12, 2012
Efficiency is Ontario trades college goal
Ontario’s current apprenticeship system has failed the province’s youth, says the Ontario College of Trades new chair.
“It’s completely mismanaged, overstaffed, overspent and tapped all the resources possible to deliver an apprenticeship system that has failed Ontario’s youth,” said Chair of the Board of Governors for the College, Ron Johnson, Deputy Director of Interior Systems Contractors Association of Ontario and the Interior Finishing Systems Training Centre.
The College was legislated in 2009 to oversee the governance of the apprenticeship training system in Ontario, promote careers in the skilled trades and review compulsory certification and ratios. The entity was formed in response to one of the recommendations made in the 2008 Compulsory Certification Project Review by Tim Armstrong.
Johnson said taking the responsibility of trades training from the government and becoming a self-governing body will be a boost for the trades.
“The Ministry’s fallen down, quite frankly, over time,” he said.
“We see this as a really good opportunity for the College to get out there in front of Ontario’s youth and to promote the value of skilled trades. It’s an exciting part of our mandate, and I think it’s one of our most important.”
Johnson added that the College is in the middle of developing a marketing and communications plan to promote the trades to young people and that plan will be going forward to the board in 2012.
The College will have several hundred thousand members and will be the largest self-regulatory body in North America.
“It’ll be a fraction of the size of the bureaucracy for apprenticeship that was being contained within the Ministry. I think we will be efficient; I think we’ll be able to react quickly to changing technologies in terms of curriculum development. “
The College is currently working on many logistical details to get it up and running such as hiring human resources staff and putting out a request for proposals for membership software.
Current short-term funding for the College is being provided by Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. Johnson said the expectation is that College will become self-funded in 2013. Membership fees will be determined by the Board of Governors, but have not been set yet.
Rough figures indicate that once the College is operational, there will be approximately 100 to 150 staff members though enforcement could increase staff levels.
Johnson said the growth will ultimately be determined by logistical details such as the size, scope and different classes of the membership.
Bob Guthrie, the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the College, will become permanent in January. Guthrie is the former Chief Executive Officer of the Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission. He has nearly 30 years of experience working with trades and apprenticeship, as well as an extensive knowledge of industry standards and labour market needs.
Johnson said the 21 members of the Board of Governors work well together and they have backgrounds in various trades, union and non union, employers and employees and bring geographical diversity.
“I know there has been some out there that are upset at maybe the lack of representation that their specific trade may have, I understand that, the reality is that we couldn’t have 157 members of the board of governors,” he said.
“Once the trades community in general gets to know the Board of Governors, they’re going to be pleased with what they see.”