Addressing the perceived barriers identified by researchers poses an opportunity for all apprenticeship stakeholders to consider measures that:

• Change perceptions and attitudes to apprenticeship and trades. While the CAF-FCA/Skills Compétences Canada Promoting Skilled Trades and Apprenticeship project will address perceptions of the trades among various demographic groups, it will be essential for governments and trades spokespersons to actively participate in this and other complementary activities.
• Increase efforts within secondary schools to support and promote the trades through counselling, information, programs and enhanced teacher awareness.
• Young people must be connected more strongly to career options in the trades, not only through changes in curricula and teacher awareness, but also through a wide array of specific initiatives, which include the use of role models or mentors and programs to strengthen the interface between high school and apprenticeship.
• Develop cultures within workplaces that are more tolerant and welcoming of women, Aboriginal people and other equity groups. Diversity training at the workplace level and flexible work arrangements to accommodate child care are among the initiatives to be explored in this area; but they must be accompanied by a commitment from employers, unions, and others that discrimination and harassment are not to be tolerated.
• Address the costs encountered in initiating apprenticeship programs, as well as costs faced by apprentices in pursuing apprenticeship programs. The wide array of cost-related issues must receive attention. In addition, there is a need for research that provides compelling evidence of the positive return on investment in apprenticeship to persuade employers and others of the benefits of apprenticeship as a skills-development measure. Cost and other issues facing small employers require particular attention.
• Mitigate the impact of economic factors that can lead to a lack of work and interruption or termination of apprenticeships. Rotation of apprentices among employers, geographical mobility of apprentices, more flexible scheduling of technical training periods, and addressing the impacts of union seniority provisions on apprentice layoffs are examples of approaches that depend on the collaboration of many apprenticeship stakeholders.
• Reassess the adequacy of resources devoted to apprenticeship. Addressing resource questions may imply a more fundamental review of education and training priorities in some jurisdictions. For specific groups such as Aboriginal people, immigrants, women and visible minorities, an assessment regarding the lack of resources for communities and community agencies to support apprenticeship may need to be addressed.
• Provide the essential skills (numeracy, literacy, computer use and other “softer” skills) that individuals must have to enhance their chances of success in apprenticeship programs. While primary responsibility on this issue rests with schools, there is a role for other agencies in providing life skills to groups such as Aboriginal people and visible minorities, and language/literacy skills to recent immigrants.
• Provide flexible and accessible technical-training arrangements, and current training curricula and equipment. This very broad issue includes not only questions regarding the location, currency, and scheduling of technical training, but also the state of training support structures such as journeypersons’ roles as trainers/mentors and inadequate prior-learning or foreign-credentials assessment and recognition, which can pose problems for particular groups. Addressing these issues will require concerted and co-ordinated efforts from jurisdictions and education/training institutions.
• Seek to harmonize rules, regulations and standards affecting apprenticeship and trades across Canada. Employers and union representatives expressed different views on journeyperson/ apprentice ratios, modular training, and other aspects of apprenticeship regulation. They strongly agreed, however, that jurisdictions must actively collaborate in strengthening the consistency of regulations across jurisdictions in order to render the apprenticeship system flexible and less cumbersome, and facilitate mobility of both apprentices and tradespersons.