Ontario has announced it’s allowing students in Grade 11 to begin working toward their apprenticeships in skilled trades while earning a secondary school diploma but a similar program is already underway with hundreds of local students involved.
Experiential Learning Coordinator Sean Pudlis, who handles skilled trades and technology education planning with the Hastings Prince Edward District School Board, says the province has yet to provide information about how the program will work.
However, he says they’ve been offering the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program for about 20 years.
Students participating in a skilled trades co-op placement have their hours count towards apprenticeship hours.
“On top of that if a student, you know, is performing really well, the employer likes what they see, the student is obviously enjoying the experience, that’s when I get involved as an OYAP recruiter and speak to all interested parties and students can actually start their apprenticeship now as early as 15 years old – as early as the transition summer between grade 10 and 11 through a summer school co-op.”
There are 178 students currently participating in the OYAP program with 11 having already signed apprenticeship contracts this year.
Pudlis says he is regularly making presentations at the board’s high schools to promote skilled trades as a viable option.
“I go in and talk about wages, all the opportunities in skilled trades. I tell them that by 2025, which right now for a lot of those students that’s right around the time they’ll be graduating high school or should be on track to graduate high school, the need in Ontario is over 100,000 skilled trades workers. Across the country, it’s over 1.25 million.”
He has even developed a Skilled Trades Planning Tool to answer any questions students and their caregivers may have about skilled trades.
“They can look up whatever trades they’re interested in and get all the very specific detailed information about, you know, how many hours would be required for that training and that apprenticeship and if they have to write an exam. People can go onto the website, select a trade, it’ll give all the job specifics and then there’s live links for all of the different pathways and the ways that you can enter that trade.”
Pudlis says they are always looking for new trades employers to join the co-op program.
Contact Pudlis at Hastings Prince Edward District School Board or connect with co-op coordinators at any of the local high schools.
