Ontario's plan to let students enter full-time apprenticeships after Grade 10 hurts learning, group warns

A non-profit organization focused on promoting public education is criticizing the Ontario government's plan to allow Grade 11 students to enter skilled trades apprenticeships full-time, saying it prioritizes filling labour shortages in the economy over learning.

People for Education said in a report released Wednesday that the plan to allow students to leave high school classrooms behind and begin on-the-job training after completing Grade 10 could limit their opportunities and lead to learning deficits.

"It is really important that kids complete all those compulsory courses in Grade 11 and Grade 12 because it's where they learn a lot of essential skills for jobs," executive director Annie Kidder said in an interview.

"And it's important for jobs in the skilled trades."

Construction sector needs 72,000 workers by 2027, minister says

Ontario announced in March it would allow young workers to apply for their Ontario Secondary School Diploma as mature students upon completion of a two- to five-year on-the-job training program in a skilled trade.

The move is part of a wider push to get more students into trades to address immense labour shortages in Ontario.

The province says it wants to build 1.5 million new homes over the next decade and the construction sector alone needs 72,000 new workers by 2027 to fill positions vacated by retiring baby boomers, Labour Minister Monte McNaughton said earlier this year.

Kidder said while it's important the province gets more students into skilled trades, it shouldn't come at the expense of valuable life skills learned in Grades 11 and 12.

"The worry is about missing the rest of high school and asking kids to make choices when they're very young," she said.

"We want to make sure that a 16-year-old has a whole bunch of possibilities."

Apprenticeship completion rates only 36 per cent: StatsCan

Kidder said this is especially a problem as Statistics Canada reports only 36 per cent of apprentices in Canada receive a certification within a period twice the expected length of the program.

People for Education said the province would be better off improving programs like the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP), where students earn a high school diploma at the same time as they working toward an apprenticeship through a co-operative education placement.

The group is also recommending the government provide more resources for parents, students and teachers — especially guidance and career counsellors — to learn about trades, while also advocating for de-streaming, the practice of dividing students based on their perceived academic ability or prior achievement, in Grades 10, 11 and 12.

Matt Bradley, the Toronto District School Board's OYAP co-ordinator, said while he respects some objections raised by People for Education's report, many students struggle finding programs that are suitable for them and actually excel in on-site job placements.

He said some students are ready for apprenticeships at the beginning of Grade 11, while others aren't ready by the time they finish high school.

"There isn't necessarily a correlation between the maturity of a student and their age," says Bradley.

He said more focus should be put on having students fully understand what they are getting into with a full-time apprenticeship, while possibly adding criteria to the Grade 10 curriculum to make sure students are prepared for that step.

"There's a lot of really intelligent objections to how it might roll out and I think those should be part of the consultation," says Bradley.

"The details really matter in something like this."

Those details likely won't come until after Ontario begins consultations this fall with employers, unions, education stakeholders, trainers, parents and others.

Ministry of Education spokesperson Grace Lee said in an email statement that the government has been "holding skilled trades fairs across the province and speaking to stakeholders" in order to implement accelerated apprenticeship pathways.

One of the recommendations People for Education made to the ministry in its report is to convene an education task force to provide advice to the government on the apprenticeship plan.

In a statement Wednesday, the Ontario NDP said People for Education's report reflects concerns raised by teachers, parents, trade unions and advocacy groups.

"If the new apprenticeship pathway is not carefully created to ensure student safety and success, it will put students' futures at risk," Ontario NDP education critic Chandra Pasma said.

Pasma added the program was approved without details about how it will be conducted and the province needs to listen to the concerns.

'The job itself is the classroom'

Those in the construction industry are more supportive of Ontario's plan as the province struggles to keep up with housing demand and desperately needs more workers.

Chris Smith, a contractor and owner of Woodsmith Construction, said he started learning and apprenticing with his father on job sites when he was 14 years old.

He now runs his own firm and says the trades have provided a career pathway that has been incredibly rewarding.

"That type of learning experience for me, when I finally got into it, was where I learned I could excel," Smith said. "It is about on-the-job experience. The job itself is the classroom."

Both Smith and Bradley said there are many college-level courses that apprentices have to pass, and that the classroom learning during an apprenticeship is as rigorous as any college training program.

"As a means for someone who does not feel like they are fitting in or belonging in a traditional high school system, the apprenticeships can offer that type of interrelationship, the literacy skills, the mathematics skills," he said.

"This is all part of the trades used on the daily."