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What is a Millwright?

tradesmart23 on August 15, 2024

What is a Millwright?

From a trades guy…

Hello everyone, this is Joel Boyd from Trade Smart College. I am the senior Instructor here, and if you choose to enrol in our program, you will be spending 8 weeks with me in the classroom. I am a certified red seal millwright with 30 years experience in the trades. At Trade Smart College we currently offer 5 trades to choose from; Automotive, Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC, and Carpentry. So you may be asking yourself what is a millwright and what do they know about the above trades? Well let me answer some of your questions.

What is a Millwright?

A millwright is a non-compulsory trade. There are two types of millwright, construction (which is not Red Seal endorsed) and Industrial (which is Red Seal endorsed). I am an industrial millwright. The apprenticeship for an Industrial Millwright is 8000 hours and consists of three levels of schooling. A millwright is responsible for the maintenance and repair of an industrial facility. I worked in the steel industry, the manufacturing industry and for a short time in the heavy equipment industry. I have had a very versatile career.

What does a millwright know about the trades offered at Trade Smart College?
My role as senior instructor at the college is not necessarily to teach you about the trade you have chosen, my job is to teach you the professional employee skills that will make you exceptional in the workforce. After your time in class, you will learn, and my team and I will supervise you on 6-month internship with a company where you will learn the basic technical skills required in your trade. That being said, you will be very surprised how much training a millwright has in all the trades that Trade Smart College offers.

Automotive

I started working in the automotive industry just out of high school. Learning about cars and how they operate was the backbone of my skills that helped me become a millwright. Automobiles are machines with gears, engines, hydraulics, pumps and electronics. These are the same systems in all machines. The components might be larger or smaller, however the principles are the same.

Electrical

As millwrights we learn basic, intermediate and advanced electricity in trade school. We work directly with Industrial Electricians (another non compulsory trade) and assist with installation and removal of electrical and electronic equipment. Many millwrights are dual ticketed as industrial electricians allowing them to work in an industrial facility as both.

Plumbing

Hydraulics, pneumatics, and other piping systems are very common in industrial facilities. In fact, most of my emergency calls as a millwright had to do with leaking or broken pipe. A millwright learns about different types of piping systems, as well as valves, fittings, gaskets and more. We are usually the first to be called for ANY mishaps or problems in the facility. If able we will repair, or if needed we will assist with any repair required.

HVAC

An IMT (industrial maintenance technician) licence is required to work on gas systems in an Industrial facility. This is the same requirement as a fully licensed residential gas fitter. Although again not able to work in the residential or commercial sector, in the industrial workplace, millwrights repair, replace and maintain all gas systems. We (millwrights) also fabricate metal, and learn different cooling systems for a variety of machines.

Carpentry

Reading blueprints and drawings, measuring and using an extensive supply of hand tools are all requirements of a millwright. Just as a carpenter builds items to spec, millwrights do the same, just with some different materials.

Final Thoughts

As stated before, my position at the college is to teach you the “soft skills” that companies want from individuals before they start. Some of these skills are, show up on time, have a positive attitude and put the phone away. Along with other personal development and trades expectations. However, should some specific trade questions arise, as a millwright I am more than capable of answering them. And if I don’t know I guarantee you I will find out, because that’s what millwrights do.

Be well
Joel

Starts September 3rd

Want to learn more about Trade Smart and our upcoming Fall Term? You can now schedule an in-person meeting with Carrie, our Student Success Manager. Pick the date and time that works best for you and that’s it, you’re one step closer to your path in the Trades.

Contact the Team

Hamilton Campus

Campus Hours

  • Mon- Fri: 7am- 5pm
  • Open House - See Schedule

Is it Hard to Get an Apprenticeship in Ontario in 2024?

tradesmart23 on August 15, 2024

Is it Hard to Get an Apprenticeship in Ontario in 2024?

Ontario needs over 100,000 new tradespeople in the next five years. With all that demand, getting an apprenticeship should be easy. However, it is the most difficult step in becoming a journeyperson. This is partly because companies cannot afford to take on poor apprentices, and partly because some would-be apprentices feel that the grunt work should be done by others. So the short answer to the question is Yes, it is hard to get an apprenticeship, and below we explain why.

Doesn’t Everyone Get an Apprenticeship?

It seems like every month there is a new announcement that Ontario is in dire need of more skilled tradespeople. At the end of 2023, the estimate was that 100,000 new tradespeople in construction alone would be needed by 2030. And now in 2024, the figure has climbed to around 140,000. With all this demand, it would be reasonable to assume that getting an apprenticeship would be easy. Unfortunately, the reality is far different. In fact, it turns out that this is the hardest part about becoming a journeyperson. It is the point where the largest number of people are excluded from the tremendous opportunities available in the trades.

It is challenging to get a complete picture of how hard it is to get an apprenticeship in Ontario. The reason is that one of the main ways to get signed is through personal connections. There aren’t any good data on this, but we do know that most people don’t have access to a friend or family member who can get them an opportunity.

What we do have data on is the percentage of students who graduate from pre-apprenticeship programs who get signed as apprentices. In the majority of trades, less than 30% of people who start a pre-apprenticeship program end up getting an apprenticeship, and in some cases it is as low as 10%. Why then, is it so hard to become an apprentice? One of the main reasons is that for most companies, they would rather not take on a new apprentice than hire a bad one.

No Apprentice is Better Than a Bad Apprentice

Many of the companies we work with could take on more work and more licensed journeypersons. Most Trade Smart certified companies would immediately hire several more journeypersons, if they were available. The problem is, most journeypersons are already working for other companies. Poaching a competitor’s employees may be a viable short-term strategy, but it rarely works in the long run because those employees often return to the original company, or go elsewhere when they are poached again. Poaching also does not address the overall shortage of tradespeople. So the best long-term strategy is for all companies to bring new talent into the trades.

But bringing new people into the trades means bringing in new apprentices and pre-apprentice candidates. As is covered in more detail in another blog, taking on a new apprentice is a costly undertaking, so companies do not do this lightly. In fact, most companies would rather not hire an apprentice than hire a bad one. The main reason is that a bad apprentice introduces uncertainty into the company’s operations. The most obvious example of this are questions like, “will the apprentice show up for work today?” or “will we have to redo the apprentice’s work?” At a business level, a bad apprentice also means that the company doesn’t know how much work it can take on. In most cases, companies would rather stick with their current staff and workload, even if it feels untenable, than take on a bad apprentice and over-commit to new projects. When a bad apprentice drops the ball, the company is then in an even worse position, having to complete more work with no more staff.

Everyone Starts at the Bottom

If you are looking to get into the trades, it is imperative that you show your employer that you will be a good apprentice. At its core, this means that you must be a professional, but even before that, you must understand a key point about the structure of trades work. Everyone starts at the bottom. And this means you start by doing a lot of things that some people think are beneath them.

But this “menial” work of cleaning, organizing, staging equipment and supplies, etc. is the foundation of all trades work. The glamorous, technical tasks cannot happen without meticulous preparation. Entry-level employees must learn this through experience from day one. It is why apprenticeships have been modelled this way for hundreds of years, and it is not going to change anytime soon.

Everyone starts out doing this work, and most people continue to do it for years as they take on more technical tasks as well. It doesn’t matter that your grandpa taught you how to use a table saw, that you rebuilt your cousin’s Subaru, or that you learned electrical theory in a pre-apprenticeship program. You don’t get to skip ahead and leave the grunt work to others.

Progress is Probable

Starting at the bottom with a professional attitude will lead to great opportunities in the trades. Unlike other jobs where advancement is difficult if not impossible, career progression in the trades is extremely likely. It won’t happen right away, so you will have to learn the skill of delayed gratification. But for tradespeople who are consistently professional, they will have more opportunities than they can handle. The good thing is that delayed gratification not only helps you in the trades, it is associated with a whole range of positive outcomes in people’s lives. It is a truly transferable ability.

Progressing in the trades depends on being able to get signed as an apprentice. And even with the critical shortage of tradespeople, this is still the most difficult part of the process. At Trade Smart College, we want to give our students the best chance of success, so we don’t accept any student into our program unless we have an apprenticeship opportunity for them.

Conclusion

It is gratifying to see that many more people are considering careers in the trades. But despite all this interest, the most difficult step is still getting signed. Companies are reluctant to make the significant investment required to take on an apprentice, unless that person has demonstrated that they can be a professional and that they understand the value of starting at the bottom. At Trade Smart College, we currently have apprenticeship opportunities in all five of the trades we support for our upcoming semesters. Contact us to schedule an information session or drop by for a visit.

Starts September 3rd

Want to learn more about Trade Smart College and our upcoming Fall Term? You can now schedule a meeting with Carrie, our Student Success Manager. Pick the date and time that works best for you and that’s it, you’re one step closer to your path in the Trades.

Contact the Team

Hamilton Campus

Campus Hours

  • Mon- Fri: 7am- 5pm
  • Open House - See Schedule

The Physical And Mental Demands Of The Skilled Trades

tradesmart23 on July 10, 2024

The Physical And Mental Demands Of The Skilled Trades

From A Trades Guy…

The skilled trades are a fantastic career. I have worked in the skilled trades for 30 years and the opportunities and pathways provided to me have been fantastic. The skilled trades are unlike any other professional career. Every day you are challenged both mentally and physically to deliver exceptional results. Here are some of the physical and mental challenges a tradesperson might deal with on a regular basis.

Physical Challenges

The trades are tough on your body. Period. For the majority of the trades, a workday will consist of lifting items like tools, materials, parts, and other objects that need to be moved, used or fitted. Bending, reaching and manoeuvring your body are also a huge part of the job. Unlike shop class, in the field there are always items in the way of what you are working on. Also, what you are fixing, repairing or maintaining is hardly ever at a comfortable working level. Finally, sitting is rarely an option. Up and down the stairs multiple times per day, climbing ladders and lying on your stomach or back to get the job done are the norm.

The physical environment that skilled tradespeople work in can also be taxing on the body. Extreme heat and cold doesn’t mean things won’t break – actually it is the opposite. Items you need break down at the time when they are needed most. A/C units break on the hottest days and furnaces break on the coldest.

Weather is not the only environmental challenge. In the skilled trades dust, dirt, waste, fumes and other hazards are common. Tradespeople often wear dust masks, respirators and full face protection. I myself have had to wear SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) multiple times to complete a task.

Are the trades tougher on your body than office work? Hard to say. We are starting to recognize the dangers of sedentary jobs, especially those with high stress levels, on our physical health. In addition, jobs with lots of distractions seem to be increasing our anxiety levels and affecting our mental health.

Mental Challenges

Have you heard the term, “always on”? As a tradesperson your mind never stops. It can’t. There are too many things that can hurt you. Whether it is pressure from a pipe, electrical current, heavy objects or power tools, becoming complacent is not an option. On a construction site there are multiple people doing a variety of tasks. Having a sharp mind to keep you focused on your work while being aware of what is happening around you can be taxing.

Safety is one mental challenge, another is problem solving, troubleshooting and diagnosing. It is your job to find the problem as quickly as possible, come up with a solution, and repair the issue. This can happen multiple times per day. As a skilled trades professional, you are looked at to either have the answers or find out as quickly as possible.

One challenge that affects both our minds and our bodies is fatigue. In the skilled trades, the hours can be long and you can be required to work multiple days in a row. When you are tired, it can be hard on your body and it can be hard on your mind. It can be difficult to stay motivated and focused. It is easier to make mistakes or incorrect decisions when you are fatigued. Tiredness can be harmful, and it is up to you to be aware how it is affecting you.

How to Cope

Even with both the mental and physical challenges of the skilled trades, I find it to be an extremely rewarding career. Here are some of the things I have done over the years to help me.

Physical Exercise

Being physically active is a major part of helping cope with both the mental and physical challenges of the skilled trades. Strength training helps make the daily physical challenges easier, and it also releases the endorphins that help the mind. My physical outlet of choice is kickboxing. This allows me to work really hard physically and helps me mentally by leaving it all in the ring.

Rest

We are all different, and you need to know yourself. I used to be in awe of (still am) of people who can function well with little or no sleep. This is not me. I tried it. Nope! For me to function at my best, I know I need 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Rest is so important mentally and physically. I know when I am tired my mood is terrible, I do not eat properly and my judgement is flawed. So I take care of myself because I know that’s what I need. Downtime is so important for my recovery.

Some Things You Might Not Expect

Physical exercise and rest may seem like obvious suggestions for dealing with some of the demands of trades work. I’d like to touch on two more things that you might not expect.

Gratitude Journal

I was introduced to a gratitude journal a few years ago by my wife. It has helped with my mindset immensely. For some reason, we as humans like to focus on the negative. By journaling and reflecting on the positive impacts of each day, I have been happier and I sleep better than I have since I was a kid.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness for me is about being in the present. Feeling what you need to feel at that moment. If you are angry or sad, allow yourself to be present in the emotion. Feel it. Then move on. This, along with discovering why or what has triggered you to feel this emotion is a powerful way to overcome mental challenges. If you put in this work to find out what is bothering you, the emotion will no longer have power over you.

Conclusion

The skilled trades are a fantastic career choice. However, you need to take care of both your mental and physical well being to be a successful tradesperson. Exercise, eat well, remain active and rest when needed are great for your physical and mental health. Additionally, reflecting on the positives of your workday and using mindfulness to get to the root cause of your triggers will definitely help overcome some of the mental challenges of a skilled trades life.

Be well,
Joel

Contact the Team

Hamilton Campus

Campus Hours

  • Mon- Fri: 7am- 5pm
  • Open House - See Schedule

The Sizzle of the Trades

tradesmart23 on July 10, 2024

The Sizzle of the Trades

Becoming a skilled trades apprentice opens up a massive range of career possibilities. More people are being attracted to these opportunities, in part because HGTV and the various renovation and real-estate shows play up the glamorous parts of trades jobs. While this is all good for generating interest, it is not sufficient for actually getting people started on the pathway to these careers.

Selling the Sizzle

Almost 100 years ago, Elmer Wheeler advised salespeople to, “sell the sizzle, not the steak”. In other words, sell the excitement, the experience, or the dream that the product or service makes possible, not the thing itself. By doing so, he transformed sales and marketing processes, and it has long been the standard practice across most industries. It is so prevalent in fact that even governments, colleges and universities use it.

Governments and colleges sell the sizzle of the trades and other programs by promoting the excitement and opportunities available. To sell the trades, especially to women, youth, and new Canadians, governments fund trades days and “try the trades” programs in schools and community centres. To help encourage girls and women to go into science and engineering, colleges and universities run science camps and “lab days” for girls. And when it comes time to recruit students, colleges and universities show students the fancy labs and equipment rather than the custodian’s closet, health and safety binder, and researcher’s notebooks that keep the whole operation running.

At Some Point, the Steak Matters

There are obvious benefits to selling the sizzle, in the trades, in science, or indeed in any profession. We have to play up the possibilities to sell any career. So we turn on the sirens and let people slide down the firepole to get people to join the fire service and we showcase brand-name tools and sportscars to get people into the trades. It’s hard to attract firefighters by telling people that most of their day will be spent cleaning, organizing equipment, and waiting. Very few girls, or boys for that matter, will want to go into the trades if we tell them that 80% of trades work is staging – organizing, recording, maintaining, and transporting goods and tools, plus cleanup and disposal.

Having said that, there is a danger of selling past the close, to use another sales mantra. In this case, If we only expose people to the glamorous parts of a trade once they have decided to pursue it, we run the risk of creating unrealistic expectations. For instance, many students graduate from pre-apprenticeship programs thinking that they are fully qualified to do the exciting tasks of their trade and are unwilling to tackle the menial work. Plumbing neophytes want to install the multi-head shower, or would-be carpenters want to build the mahogany mantle, and they get frustrated when they’re told to sweep the shop instead. But sweeping the shop, sorting bolts, cutting boxes and moving pipe are all essential tasks in the trades. None of this is “just labour” or “not real trades work”. It is the steak that makes the sizzle possible.

Trades Work is Teamwork

There is another dimension to the reality of trades work, and it is something that doesn’t get covered in most programs and “try the trades” days. Trades work is fundamentally about team work. Every trades project gets done by a team, even if that team is only the tradesperson and the customer. This means that the needs of the team are paramount, and this plays out in several ways. The most basic requirement of being on a team is showing up on time and being ready to contribute more than your fair share. These are the go-to people on any team regardless of their skill, and they are the ones who consistently get picked for the next project.

Being a good team member is pretty similar to being a good citizen, or being a good professional. The skills are the same, and are based on taking personal responsibility, acting with integrity, and being willing to cheerfully put in the work required to get the job done. All of this is necessary before the glamour can happen. In any trade, be a professional and you will have jobs and opportunities. Be self-absorbed and you won’t.

How Companies Actually Award Apprenticeships

As I explain in another blog, taking on an apprentice is a costly endeavour for any company. The natural assumption then is that companies are looking for people to have some fairly well-developed technical skills in a trade before taking them as an apprentice. Lots of pre-apprenticeship programs are based on this idea, where the emphasis is on the amount of time a student spends in a workshop doing the “hands-on” work of the trade. This dovetails nicely with selling the sizzle, because students get to use some of the latest tools in clean, climate-controlled workspaces.

The problem is that companies do not choose apprentices based on their pre-existing technical skills or how well they use tools in an artificial environment. Instead they hire, and fire, on professionalism. Pre-existing technical wizardry is an afterthought at best. Being a professional is rarely glamorous, but it is the steak that makes the sizzle possible. And it is the only thing our Trade Smart certified companies look for when they decide to bring someone on as an apprentice.

Conclusion

There are tons of great opportunities in the trades in Ontario, and across the country. And there is some glamour and glory in most of these possibilities. But that comes later, after one has become a consummate professional and can be trusted to approach every task with integrity. As in most other careers, the hard work comes first.

Contact the Team

Hamilton Campus

Campus Hours

  • Mon- Fri: 7am- 5pm
  • Open House - See Schedule

Should Your College Find You an Apprenticeship? Matching Students with Local Jobs in the Trades

tradesmart23 on July 10, 2024

Should Your College Find You an Apprenticeship?
Matching Students with Local Jobs in the Trades

Students go to college or university to get jobs. This is the overwhelming reason that students and parents give for going to college and it has been true for decades. Despite the other reasons why people pursue post-secondary education, and there are some, it is naive to think that they outweigh the importance of getting a job. So the obvious question is, “should your college or university find you your first job opportunity?”

Colleges Have No Obligation to Find You a Job

The first answer to this question is No, a college has no responsibility for finding you a job. There are two main reasons for this. First, going to college is about so much more than getting a job, and to focus on employment minimizes all of these other benefits. People go to college to expand their minds, to learn new things, meet new friends and hopefully become better citizens. This is the real benefit of post-secondary education, so to reduce the experience to a mere exchange – tuition for a job opportunity – is the wrong way to think about it.

The second reason is that a college, or a professor, cannot control what you will do with a job opportunity, how much effort you will put in, or whether you will show up every day with a good attitude. “We gave them all the knowledge, now it’s up to them to use it and find a job”, is the common refrain. Since colleges cannot control how their graduates will perform, they should not be obligated to find them a job.

Colleges Should Find You a Job

The other answer is Yes, colleges should be responsible for finding you that first job. Every institution, implicitly or explicitly, sells seats in their classrooms with the promise of a better job. “What career are you interested in?, “What are your career goals?”, or “What do you want to do with your degree?” are some of the most common questions that college recruiters ask potential students. Their answers are then focused on explaining how some of their programs are great preparation for the student’s goals. It’s a very effective strategy, but the message is clear – getting a degree or diploma gets you a better job.

When a student, or their parents, pay thousands of dollars a year for a credential and they are encouraged to believe that this will get them a job, they have a right to expect that there will be a job when they graduate. Yes it’s complicated, and yes it’s a lot of work to ensure that students have a chance at employment when they graduate. So if the college doesn’t know how many jobs will be available when students finish, or they know there are far fewer jobs than graduates, students have a right to be frustrated.

We Start with the Opportunity

Students come to Trade Smart College because they want to become a journeyperson in a specific trade. We feel obligated to maximise those chances by teaching the right things at the right time. But more importantly, we feel it is our responsibility to make sure there is at least a potential entry-level job available when they graduate. And not just any job. We want to help address the shortage of skilled tradespeople, so we want our students to get into apprenticeships. This is the starting point for great trades careers.

We find these apprenticeship opportunities locally, in Hamilton and the surrounding area. The reason is that skill shortages, job openings, and company expansions are almost always solved locally, not regionally or provincially. The province may need 100,000 skilled tradespeople, but that shortage isn’t going to be solved unless qualified people are matched with apprenticeship opportunities. Simply dumping 100,000 newly minted graduates into the province won’t work. College to work connections must be done locally, in local labour markets.

If Everyone Graduates at the Same Time, Lots of People Don’t Get Jobs

Many colleges offer their programs 2 or 3 times per year. One of the disadvantages for students in this model is that there are 2 or 3 large clumps of graduates each year, meaning that lots of people are competing for the same jobs at the same time. Some Career Colleges have recognized this problem and offer multiple start dates to spread out the number of graduates at any one time.

At Trade Smart College, we only graduate 120 students a year, and we only take 25 students per class. We don’t dump a bunch of students into the market so they can all compete with each other for a small number of jobs. We talk to our certified companies first and get a sense from them whether they will be able to take somebody in a couple months or not. If the answer is no, we move on to our other companies to see if they can take people. And if we get 5 spots in a trade, we take five students for that cohort. If we don’t get any, we don’t take any students in that trade for that cohort. It’s not a guarantee by any means, but at least it’s a fair shake for the students and the companies to get what they both want – a job and a good employee.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to get into a skilled trade, the most difficult part of the journey is finding a company or union that will sign you as an apprentice. You can have the highest grades, or demonstrate superior technical skills in a lab, but none of that matters unless you have a genuine opportunity at earning an apprenticeship. Some colleges leave it up to you to find those opportunities. At Trade Smart College, we think that is our job. If you agree, contact us for more information about our program.

Contact the Team

Hamilton Campus

Campus Hours

  • Mon- Fri: 7am- 5pm
  • Open House - See Schedule

How to Become a Skilled Trades Apprentice in Ontario in 2024

tradesmart23 on June 18, 2024

How to Become a Skilled Trades Apprentice in Ontario in 2024

The first step in taking advantage of the tremendous opportunities in the skilled trades is to become an apprentice. We get questions from prospective students almost every day that ask us how to do this. They’ve often done an online search, but even after that they don’t have a clear picture of how to become an apprentice. While the actual steps seem simple, the reality is that becoming an apprentice is the most difficult part of the journey into the skilled trades.

The Four Steps

If you go to the Ontario government’s website, you can find the four steps you need to complete in order to become an apprentice. https://www.ontario.ca/page/start-apprenticeship Those steps are:

  1. Find out if you qualify
  2. Find an employer or sponsor
  3. Apply for an apprenticeship
  4. Sign a Training Agreement

So what do these steps mean? Starting with step 1, in order to be eligible for an apprenticeship in Ontario you must be at least 16 years old and have legal permission to work in Canada. In some trades there are also some educational requirements, most commonly a high school diploma. The educational requirements are intentionally low because an apprenticeship is first and foremost a form of education, more than it is a form  of work. 

Assuming you meet the requirements above, the next step is to find an organization  (a company or union) who will sponsor you in your apprenticeship. You can send your resume to companies or knock on doors and hope that somebody will take you on as an apprentice. If they do, you can then apply for an apprenticeship, and then you work with that organization to sign a “Registered Training Agreement” with the government. After that, you are officially an apprentice and on your way to an amazing career in the trades.

If only it were that simple.

Step 2 is a Doozy

While these steps are technically correct, they tell you almost nothing about how to actually get an apprenticeship. This is like saying, there are only four steps for running a marathon:

  1. Buy shoes and the necessary equipment
  2. Train yourself to be able to run a marathon
  3. Sign up for a marathon
  4. Complete the race

If you said to a marathoner, “I can now run a marathon because someone told me these four steps”, they will probably pat you on the head and wish you good luck. And the same is true for the steps to become an apprentice. In both cases, there is so much that goes into each step that just knowing them does you no good. And in both cases, it is step 2 that prevents almost everyone from becoming an apprentice or running a marathon.

For apprenticeships, the reality is that even if your age, work status and educational background qualify you to become an apprentice, the same is true for thousands, perhaps millions, of other people. So “finding an employer or sponsor” is actually the most difficult part of the entire process of getting into the trades. It is more difficult than learning the technical skills of any trade, writing the exams in compulsory trades, or finding a job once you’re licensed. 

Nobody Gets Signed Without a Connection

The main reason why step 2 in becoming an apprentice is so difficult is because the cost of sponsoring an apprentice, for a company or a union, is very high. As I mentioned above, apprenticeships are primarily educational experiences, not work experiences. We as a society have decided that training people in the skilled trades is better done on a jobsite than in a classroom. So companies or unions have to provide significant resources to train new recruits in the technical skills of a trade. I’ll break down these costs in more detail in a future blog but the main costs are: having a journeyperson or master available as a teacher, decreased productivity, mistakes and corrections, and turnover costs.

Organizations cannot afford to invest these resources on just anyone. And when they receive over 200 applications for an apprenticeship opportunity, all with roughly the same  qualifications, they have no rational way to pick the best candidate. Moreover, most places have been burned in the past when they have taken on a candidate and set aside the time and money to train them, only to have the candidate quit in the first week or two. Given how frequently this happens, the only sensible thing for a company or union to do is to pick people who have a connection to the organization. Is your uncle in the union, or does a family friend own a plumbing company? If so, you have a reasonable chance of being sponsored as an apprentice. If you don’t have a connection, your chances are abysmal.

How to Find a Sponsor if You Don’t Have a Connection

While relying on connections is the rational, and perhaps the only, way for organizations to screen apprentice candidates, it is not sustainable, does not promote diversity, nor does it help fill the critical shortage of tradespeople. So if you want to get into the trades but you don’t have a connection, there are a couple of things you can do. The two most common approaches are to take a pre-apprenticeship program at a college to learn some skills in your trade, or take a job as a general labourer and hope to get signed as an apprentice later. 

The problem with getting a job as a labourer is that you are still waiting for an apprenticeship opportunity. Some labourers work for years before getting signed, and for others the opportunity never materializes. If you take a pre-apprenticeship program, at most colleges you still have to find your own apprenticeship. And you will graduate with dozens of others, so you are all competing for the same spots. 

At Trade Smart College, we don’t admit a student until after we have secured an apprenticeship opportunity for them. We don’t guarantee that you’ll become an apprentice because you still have to earn it, but at least you know you are working towards an actual position. 

Conclusion

Becoming a skilled trades apprentice in Ontario is more difficult than it should be given that we need over 100,000 more people in the sector in the next five years. While the theoretical steps are straightforward, the reality is that getting an apprenticeship without a trades connection is virtually impossible. If you want to get into the trades and you have a connection, you should use it. If you don’t, at Trade Smart College we currently have companies with apprenticeship opportunities in five different trades. Contact us for more information.

Contact the Team

Hamilton Campus

Campus Hours

  • Mon- Fri: 7am- 5pm
  • Open House - See Schedule

What’s the Highest Paying Trade in Ontario in 2024?

tradesmart23 on June 18, 2024

What’s the Highest Paying Trade in Ontario in 2024?

Many of our prospective students ask some version of the question, “what is the highest paying trade in Ontario?” We understand the impulse behind this – many people want to go into a field where they can make the most money. University students ask the same question, “what subject should I study to get the highest paying job?” The best answer in both cases is not so much about choosing a specific field or trade, but which opportunities a person decides to pursue. I’ll have more to say  in a later blog about university choices but for now let’s look at some of the different trades options.

The Four Main Trades Sectors:

There are currently thousands of open jobs in the majority of trades in Ontario, and across the country. The majority of these trades fall into one of four categories: Construction; Industrial/Manufacturing; Transportation, or; Service. As a general rule, average salaries are lower in the service trades like hairstyling, cooking and network cabling (or the rather esoteric “horse harness maker”). Annual earnings in many service trades are often in the $40,000- $60,000 range even for people with many years of experience. 

In contrast, in construction trades like plumbing, electrical and HVAC, people often earn six figures a year while they are still an apprentice or shortly after becoming journeypersons. The same is true for many industrial and transportation technicians as well. Heavy equipment, and truck and coach technicians in the transportation sector, along with millwrights and welders in industrial/manufacturing trades are able to earn over $100,000 a year within a few years of becoming a qualified journeyperson. 

If you Google the highest paying trades in Ontario in 2024, you’ll get a range of answers. Some sites will tell you electricians make the most money, with an average salary of just over $90,000. Other sites, including some of the major job boards (Indeed, etc), will list millwrights, truck drivers or HVAC technicians at the top. So which one of these is right? Frankly, that is the wrong question.

What Difference Does a Dollar (or Two) Make?

You could spend a great deal of time in the rabbit hole trying to figure out which trade pays a dollar more an hour than the others, which internet site uses the best data, which one uses the best estimation methodology, or has the largest sample size. But the fact is, that is a waste of your time. All of the job sites use a similar methodology based on data collected from their own job banks, and none of these are any better or worse at estimating the average salaries of different tradespeople. They reach different conclusions because they use different data.

More importantly, these estimates are not meaningfully different from each other, or between the top-paying trades. Most sites peg the average hourly rate for electricians, plumbers, HVAC techs, truck and coach mechanics, millwrights and others at around $48-$51 per hour across the province. Is it wise to choose a trade based on a difference of $1-2 in the hourly wage? The clear answer is No, and here’s why.

Get Qualified, and Make the Most of Your Trade

I would urge you to be cautious about going into a trade based primarily on the average wage you see on the internet for two reasons. First, you need to become a licensed journeyperson in any of these trades before making $48/hour or more is even possible. If you don’t finish an apprenticeship in any of these trades you’ll be stuck making $25/hour for your career. So pick a trade where you have the greatest chance of finishing your apprenticeship. In other words, not finishing your apprenticeship in a trade with a $51/hour average wage is much worse than getting certified in one with a $48/hour rate. 

 Second, how you approach your chosen trade, and which opportunities you pursue, will have more impact on your annual income than some slightly higher average hourly wage in another trade. There is a critical shortage of licensed tradespeople in all of these high-wage trades, so you’ll always have an opportunity to work overtime or on-call. Working a few extra hours each week can greatly increase a person’s annual income. The impact will be far greater than a couple dollars on an hourly rate. Doesn’t mean you have to do this for the rest of your life, but if you want to earn more money, this is one of the best ways to do that.

There’s More to Life Than Money…

It is certainly worth knowing the highest paying trade in Ontario, especially in 2024 when inflation and the general cost of living is so high across the province. However, there can be more to life than money, so it is important to choose a trade that interests you, or gives you other things besides money. I’m not saying “follow your passion”, or “find your passion” because that is nonsense. I’m saying try to choose a trade that is likely to sustain your interest.

Even if you don’t believe that there’s more to life than money, you should still pick a trade that interests you. The reason is that most people who get into the trades don’t spend their entire careers on the tools. Lots of plumbers, electricians, millwrights and welders hang up their tools to get into sales, estimating, project management, equipment and supplies, or business ownership. 

Sometimes they do this because they can make more money, but many of them pursue these other opportunities because they are interested in the field, and this gives them the confidence to try something new. It is worth remembering that if you open your own HVAC business or start managing large electrical projects, the hourly wage for HVAC techs or electricians on some internet sites no longer applies. So why choose a trade now based on a number that might not apply to you in a few years? 

Conclusion

Starting out in a trade, especially a compulsory trade like the ones we support at Trade Smart College, opens up a huge range of career possibilities. If you’re willing to work hard and you make some good decisions, you will probably have more opportunities than most university graduates. This is because there are far fewer people in Ontario in 2024 with a journeyperson’s ticket than with a university degree, and there are thousands more open jobs for journeypersons than for university grads. If you just want to make money, you can do that in any compulsory trade without obsessing over which one has the highest average wage right now. If you think there’s more to life than money, you’ll find that in the trades as well.

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Your Chances of Getting an Apprenticeship in Ontario: By the Numbers

tradesmart23 on June 18, 2024

Your Chances of Getting an Apprenticeship: By the Numbers

By any measure, Ontario is desperately short of skilled tradespeople. We need people now, but the first step in becoming a tradesperson is to get signed as an apprentice. The only way into a skilled trade is to complete an apprenticeship. You’d think that with the shortage, almost everyone who wants to get into the trades can get an apprenticeship. Well, the numbers tell a very different story, and getting signed is one of, if not the most difficult steps in becoming a tradesperson. So how does one get signed as an apprentice?

If I take a pre-apprenticeship program at college, will I get an apprenticeship?

This is perhaps the most important question that you should answer before deciding to spend your time and money on a pre-apprenticeship program. By their very name, these programs should prepare you for an apprenticeship, so the question is how well do they do it?

The reality is that no college in Ontario will guarantee you an apprenticeship once you graduate. By law, and by common sense, they can’t. So if there is no guarantee, what are your chances of getting signed? One way to find out is to look at what’s happened to students in the past. Luckily, the Ontario government provides data on this.

If 100 students start a pre-apprenticeship, how many end up getting signed?

This is a more specific, and more testable question for anyone considering a pre-apprenticeship program. Hypothetically, if you are one of 100 students who enrol in, for instance, a pre-apprentice electrical program, how many of you will end up getting signed as an apprentice? The answer is obviously less than 100 because:

  • Not everyone who starts the program will finish or graduate;
  • Not everyone who graduates will end up working or looking for work, and;
  • Not everyone who wants to work will get an apprenticeship position.

In other words, some of the people who start the program will fail or get kicked out, some people who graduate will decide to do other things (go back to school, stay home, travel), and some people will get jobs, but not as electrical apprentices. So what do the numbers tell us? Unfortunately, the results are a bit depressing.

In Many Trades, Less Than 30% of People Who Start a Pre-Apprenticeship Program Get Signed in Ontario

When we use the government data collected for four major trades and we account for the students who don’t graduate, who don’t stay in the labour force, and who don’t get jobs in their field of study, we end up with the percentages in the table below.

 

Program/Trade% Chance you will get an Apprenticeship*
Carpentry24
Electrical20
HVAC (sheet metal, gasfitter)23
Plumbing26

 

These percentages seem distressingly low, but they are based on official government data. I have some personal, anecdotal experience with these percentages. My oldest son graduated from an electrical pre-apprentice program several years ago and he was one of only 4 graduates from a class of 40 that eventually got signed as an apprentice. In fact, that 10% success rate was one of my personal motivations for helping to start Trade Smart College. I just figured there had to be a way to do better than this.

Why do so Few People Actually Get an Apprenticeship?

There is no single reason why these percentages are so low. In fact, there are even some good reasons why people don’t end up continuing in their chosen trade. Some people genuinely find better opportunities, decide the trade isn’t right for them, or get excited about doing something else. But this doesn’t detract from the fact that lots of people spend a lot of time and money on pre-apprenticeship programs and can’t get into their field. 

For us at Trade Smart College, we think these percentages are too low. And we think they point to a whole series of problems along the pathway into apprenticeship. The three main problems are:

  • Student and employer expectations do not match
  • There is no coordination of the supply and demand for apprentices in local labour markets, and;
  • Employers are reluctant to take on apprentices because of the significant costs involved in doing so.

Our diploma program addresses all three of these problems head-on. To find out how, please check out my other posts, or reach out to us and one of our team members will be happy to answer your questions. We are not perfect and we do not promise anyone a job, but we are determined to raise these percentages.

Conclusion

There is a shortage of qualified tradespeople in Ontario, but there are lots of people who want to fill that gap. Unfortunately, for every 100 people who want to go into some of the main construction trades, only about 25% are able to do so. This means there are barriers along the apprenticeship pathway, and they need to be addressed for the sake of students, trades companies, and the economy. Contact us, or come by for a visit, and see how we’re trying to eliminate those barriers.

*Footnote: Here is the basic formula to arrive at the numbers in the table.

C = G x P x F

Where C is the % chance of getting signed as an apprentice,

G is the Graduation Rate for the program

P is the Labour Force Participation Rate for the program, and

F is the percentage of labour force participants who are working in their field, or a partially related field.

For example, the numbers for Carpenters are as follows:

G = 60%

P = 73.5%

F = 53%

So C for carpenters is: .60 x .735 x .53 = 23.37%.

In other words, out of 100 people who start a carpentry pre-apprentice program, only 23 of them get signed as apprentices.

Here are the numbers for the other three trades in the table (expressed as decimals).

 

 G (grad rate)P (part. rate)F (in Field rate)C (chance signed)
Electrical.64.71.44.20
HVAC.72.39.82.23
Plumbing.70.84.44.26

 

Data for this table is provided by the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities for the 2017-18 year (the latest year for which data are available). The data used for these calculations can be found at: https://www.app.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/labourmarket/employmentprofiles/index.asp . The programs pulled for analysis are: Carpentry and Renovation Techniques; Electrical Techniques; Plumbing Techniques, and; Heating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Techniques. All programs are Ontario College Certificate programs.

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