Federal and provincial governments help apprentices and create jobs in Atlantic Canada

The Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Employment and Social Development, and the Council of Atlantic Premiers announced an initiative to harmonize apprenticeship systems across the Atlantic region.

This project will help harmonize training, certification and standards, leading to increased availability of training, higher apprenticeship completion rates and increased labour mobility for apprentices across Atlantic Canada. In turn that means more jobs and opportunities for workers in the skilled trades and a step forward in addressing the skills shortage faced in certain regions and sectors in Canada.

“Having harmonized apprenticeship systems will help more Canadians gain the skills and experience they need to find available jobs. This project will create jobs and opportunities for workers across Atlantic Canada and help employers get the skilled workers they need.  Today is an important step forward in removing the barriers to job creation caused by different apprenticeship systems across the country,” said Kenney.

Canada currently has 13 different apprenticeship systems across the country with different requirements for training, certification and standards. These inconsistences mean that apprentices who wish to move to another province to continue or complete their training are often unable to do so because the systems can be so different. At the same time, employers wishing to recruit new apprentices from out of province face similar challenges.

Quick facts

• This project is receiving over $4.3 million from the Government of Canada and over $3.5 million from the governments of the Atlantic provinces.
• This project will focus on 10 trades including bricklayers, instrumentation and control technicians and construction electricians.
• This project will complement work currently underway to harmonize training and certification requirements in targeted Red Seal trades across Canada.