Manufacturers and educational institutions must develop more opportunities for hands-on instruction by practitioners within companies. The federal government can assist by providing tax incentives for the donation or use of equipment for instructional purposes.

“Educators have to think differently about the needs of modern manufacturing.”

“We need to de-institutionalize education. Applied knowledge is best communicated by those actually doing things in a real-life environment, not in classrooms.”

“We must all break down silos. The most innovative ideas come from looking beyond traditional ways of understanding things.”

“If ideas cannot be applied in my business, they are at best white noise.”

iii. Greater emphasis must be placed on apprenticeships and cooperative training programs, as well as on upgrading the skills of current employees.

Our Vision

• A world-class technical workforce that attracts manufacturers to locate in Canada.
• Businesses take pride in the capabilities of their workers.
• Manufacturers are prepared to invest as much money in critical skills training as they would invest in maintaining the productive capacity of their capital assets.
• Educational and training programs offer graduates theoretical and technical knowledge as well as practical experience.
• An integrated strategy for trades and technical training across the country encompassing apprenticeships, cooperative education programs, and in-house training.
• Collaborative initiatives within industry to offer joint training programs.

Challenges

• Canadian manufacturers invest a relatively small proportion of their total payroll in formal skills training – about one-fifth of the amount invested in Japanese manufacturing and three-quarters of that invested in the U.S. However, a larger percentage of firms do invest in informal training for their employees.
• According to CME’s 2004 Management Issues Survey, 40% of manufacturers in Canada invested less than 1% of their total payroll in formal training programs while 27% invested less than 1% of payroll in informal training. In contrast, 29% of firms invested over 3% of payroll in formal training, but 47% invested a similar amount of payroll in informal training programs. Training budgets rise as company size expands. (See Tables 2, 3, and 4.)