Researching the Educational Requirements for the Trades

As noted earlier, Apprenticeship Programs are governed by two distinct pieces of legislation in the province of Ontario: the Trades Certification and Apprenticeship Act(TQAA) , 1990, and the Apprenticeship Certification Act(ACA) , 1998.

The new Apprenticeship Certification Act includes an increase in educational standards. This is intended to match the needs of most employers, and help to improve the image of careers in skilled trades. Consequently, a minimum of Grade 12 education or its equivalent is now required for all candidates for an apprenticeships covered by this act. This constitutes a change for several popular apprenticeships, perhaps most notably careers in Hairstyling. We felt that it was important to include this trade as a potential focus for a set of assessment tools.

The construction trades, however, are not governed by the new rules. The industry committee responsible for construction trades set different educational standards in regulations, and continue to be governed under the Trades Certification and Apprenticeship Act. However, as we mentioned earlier, the academic requirements for training in these fields continues to be high, and grade 12 or equivalent is often a prerequisite for these trades as well. We saw this as a source of confusion for apprenticeship candidates, and decided to include a construction trade as a potential focus for assessments tools.

Researching the Needs of LBS Learners

Next, we considered the interests of LBS learners. We compiled a list of the apprenticeships that are commonly sited as long-term goals by learners who are just entering LBS programs. Again, we looked for similarities between the Ontario Job Futures and WWTAB list, and marked those as likely trades. Table 4 shows the original list of trades, with matches to Ontario Job Futures and WWTAB indicated.