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Extreme worker shortage looming in Canada.

urbandreamer said:
^What line of work? What the hell do ppl do in offices anyway? (I've never had an office gig.) I'm curious. Maybe I'd be a good OB after all?
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Well, I develop pet food, animal feed and human food (no, that's not Soylent Green green) products (ice wine, confectionery, etc...) for compliance with export markets, and then locate international representatives, negotiate distribution agreements, and then travel to the country to help them sell the products, and then come back to my office and do it all over again.
 
Skilled workers are always needed,health workers for our growing aging population is always needed but we cannot lower our standards to fill quotas.The problem is if we get into a recession the strain on services will be huge if the quotas for immigrants are increased to fill the short term work force.Canada has to make it known that skilled labor are needed and not desperate to fill its yearly quotas..thats the fine line Canada must take.
 
whatever said:
How do you figure? Apprentices are open to all sorts of tax breaks, and trade schools are almost completely subsidized already. Besides that, an apprentice already makes way more than a post-secondary student, easily enough to live off of.

The real barrier to furthering apprenticeships isn't economic, it's cultural. There's so much pressure on young adults leaving high school to continue on to university or college that most aren't even aware of the possibilities open to them with apprenticeships.

Anecdotally, the trend I've noticed is that more and more tradesman today have degrees or diplomas (either partially or fully complete). The education really doesn't provide any extra skill or qualification, but it does seem like every young guy I've talked to lately has something of the sort, whereas five or ten years ago it was unheard of.
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There's the problem of skilled tradespeople not taking on apprentices. This is probably a matter of money...
 
^Interesting. Currently I do nothing but surf online. Write for my blog, play online games, look at porn etc. A few times each month I try to make a few bills via questrade. Otherwise, I'm a total lazy slacker. (But I'm extremely bored and miss the social life of a "real" job.) I need a job that allows me to flirt and chat nonstop, boss ppl around, work occasionally and generally get to say really racy un-PC things while getting at least $2000/month income. Oh I should add I hate teamwork, I hate work gossip, I hate repetitive jobs such as data entry, sitting around a cubicle all day, lifting heavy objects, etc. Anyone know what line of work I should be doing?

Confused,

u_d
 
afransen said:
There's the problem of skilled tradespeople not taking on apprentices. This is probably a matter of money...
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Since when was that a problem? From what I'm seeing right now there's more demand for apprentices than there is supply. No one seems to be able to get enough apprentices.

Apprentices tend to be sought after because they're cheap. On any job of reasonable size there ends up being all kinds of work that needs to be done that doesn't require a fully trained and skilled tradesman, and for that sort of work the ideal solution is to take on a relatively inexpensive apprentice, and then slowly teach them things here and there over time.
 
whatever said:
Since when was that a problem? From what I'm seeing right now there's more demand for apprentices than there is supply. No one seems to be able to get enough apprentices.

Apprentices tend to be sought after because they're cheap. On any job of reasonable size there ends up being all kinds of work that needs to be done that doesn't require a fully trained and skilled tradesman, and for that sort of work the ideal solution is to take on a relatively inexpensive apprentice, and then slowly teach them things here and there over time.
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I'm not sure where you're seeing this. Maybe in a couple of industries, but I have known dozens of high school graduates who found it almost impossible to get into an apprenticeship program, and I've spoken to high school officials who are dealing with the problem. Are the apprenticeships you're talking about real? Are they actual paths to certification?
 
Culturally speaking.....

As someone already pointed out, the main culprit in all this is culture.

From what I understand is that a good deal of younger people were discouraged from going into trades by their families. Fathers didn't want their sons to live the life of a lowly trades person like their older peers, thinking this was a waste of time and beneath them.

They were instead sold on the idea of post secondary education and getting a *degee*. Now everyone is going to college/university and very few entered trades and are in a position of taking over when the older generation begins retiring.

And the really ironic thing is that trades people are making mountains of money compared to the ones with the degrees and working the office job. I don't think there is a way out of this one.

I can only imagine how this is going to effect the construction industry and real estate markets in a few short years.
 
urbandreamer said:
^Interesting. Currently I do nothing but surf online. Write for my blog, play online games, look at porn etc. A few times each month I try to make a few bills via questrade. Otherwise, I'm a total lazy slacker. (But I'm extremely bored and miss the social life of a "real" job.) I need a job that allows me to flirt and chat nonstop, boss ppl around, work occasionally and generally get to say really racy un-PC things while getting at least $2000/month income. Oh I should add I hate teamwork, I hate work gossip, I hate repetitive jobs such as data entry, sitting around a cubicle all day, lifting heavy objects, etc. Anyone know what line of work I should be doing?
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Sorry dude, at $2000/month all you're going to be doing is the repetitive, boring, heavy-object'd jobs. You don't get to chat nonstop, boss people around, work occasionally, and say racy things unless you're making *at least* $4-5000/month.
 
Trades look great now but no-one could have predicted this real estate cycle(and that's really what we mean by trades, directly or indirectly) would be so extreme. That said, real estate & constrcution is also cyclical at some point things will slow and the trades will have a huge surplus of workers. The last thing anyone should do is chase money like that because as often as not by the time you're certified (or whatever the term is) the cycle is ending.
You're better off thinking about what you're good at, what you enjoy and pursuing it. Its not complicating. A lot of research says that it takes 10 years to "become an expert in any field" and that will fly by faster tyan you think. And with a bit of luck you'll find there aren't too many people competing for your job.
 
Opening next door to the new africentric high school, the new Mike Holmes High School for Skilled Workers. Seriously, he's onto a good thing: promote the trades and pride in craftsmanship.
 
unimaginative2 said:
I'm not sure where you're seeing this. Maybe in a couple of industries, but I have known dozens of high school graduates who found it almost impossible to get into an apprenticeship program, and I've spoken to high school officials who are dealing with the problem. Are the apprenticeships you're talking about real? Are they actual paths to certification?
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I'm talking about construction as a whole, so my comments would apply to pretty much all trades: sheet metal, electrical, drywall, carpentry, pipe fitters, elevators (maybe not so much elevators, they're a pretty small trade), ironworkers, and so on.

And yes, these are real apprenticeships. Yes, they lead to certification. I did one myself and have the Certificate of Apprenticeship and the Certificate of Qualification to prove it.

I don't doubt that high school officials haven't figured it out, because I'm yet to meet a high school official who has any understanding of how the apprenticeship system works, or how to go about getting someone into an apprenticeship. They get how to fill out applications to get students into colleges and universities, and they're comfortable filling out those applications because it's just another academic institution they're dealing with. They get that. What they don't get is how the trades are organized, how the apprenticeships relate to the unions, how to communicate with the unions, and what the process really looks like.
 
Beyond the money issue the most attractive thing about the trades in my opinion is the ability to be your own boss and the time and financial independence this entails. In a british survey a while back the career with the highest job satisfaction were the skilled trades such as plumbing and electrical contractors (for the record architects were the least satisfied).

As for shortage of labour and skilled trades an old contrarian investor signal is read the "news" signals coming out in the media and assume the opposite. So when they say there is a shortage of labour or skilled trades it means that it was good to get into the trades and look for a job 5 years ago but moving forward hold on to your shorts because we are about to see job losses and in particular in this sector in the years ahead.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Many of us have very much wasted our time going to university, in many cases due to parental pressure. Meanwhile, the skilled trades are employing like mad.
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I'm starting to believe that...sort of. I've got two BA's and a College Diploma and have been looking (on and off) for a new job for three years and nothing. The few I've been offered required a massive pay cut, but in general I don't even get to the interview stage. Everyone says my CV is great and I think I interview well, but still nada. General arts degrees be damned!

I'll feel differently about this tomorrow, I really will.
 
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