Last year, almost 10,000 employers sponsored apprentices. This is up from about 9,500 in 2014. However, there are many misconceptions about hiring an apprentice; among them is that training someone will slow you down or cost you too much time and money. This can cause problems down the road as people retire. “Skilled tradespeople only come from three sources: you either grown your own through apprentices, or you poach them from others, or you import them,” says Industry Training Authority CEO Gary Herman.

According to the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum, for every dollar invested in an apprentice employers get a return of $1.47, which doesn’t count annual tax credits or grants for the employer and apprentice.

Read more here in this Vancouver Sun story.

The Journal of Commerce asked members of its Editorial Advisory Board how they thought the industry could improve in 2016. Jack Davidson, president of the BC Road Builders and Heavy Construction Association and one of our founding members, had this to say:

“The construction industry needs to do a better job of finding, recruiting and training our next generation of skilled workers. The industry needs to: promote careers not just jobs; ensure training standards meet industry needs; help workers and employers make connections; help find the appropriate training that a worker requires to advance, track and update their credentials; and do a better job of advising government and other stakeholders on key workforce and labour issues.”

The CITN does all of these things, and we appreciate the support that Jack and our association partners have given us.

Read the entire story here.