Category: Canada

Does anyone remember 2008, when the most pressing policy problem we had in post-secondary education was how to increase apprenticeship enrolments? When skilled-trade shortages were simply going to kill the economy? Seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it? Now, there is an argument – one which was made very well a few months ago by the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity – that the whole shortage thing was overblown; certainly, it was the only labour shortage in history that

Why do Canadian apprenticeships take so long? Canadian apprenticeships vary in length a bit by trade and province, with standard lengths going from two to five years. But by convention most of the main trades are designed to last four years (in practice, of course, they often last longer as apprentices don’t always manage to make the regular alternation of work and technical training). Now, compare this to the normal times-to-completion in other countries. In Germany, Austria and New Zealand