CHBA – Alberta will work with members, AIT, high schools,
colleges and others to:
- Enhance apprenticeship and/or certification classroom training  and on-site requirements with residential content.

- Develop flexibility in the apprenticeship program.

- Have members recognize the value of hiring apprenticed trades.

Apprenticeship in Alberta:
www.tradesecrets.org

Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training:
www.advancededucation.gov.ab.ca

Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit for Employers:
www.cra-arc.gc.ca

Scholarships for Apprentices:
www.tradesecrets.gov.ab.ca

Essential Skills for the Workplace:
www.conferenceboard.ca

Apprenticeship is a major focus for CHBA – Alberta efforts to ensure a skilled workforce for the long-term. A relevant Apprenticeship program for residential construction can ensure that employers know what skills workers have, that they are the right skills, and that those skills are certified. This is critical to attracting more young people to our industry.

The Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training (AIT) Board is the provincially legislated body that is responsible for administering the apprenticeship training system in Alberta. The Alberta system is strong, producing about 20 percent of Canada’s skilled trades with about 10 percent of the population. However, representatives of the residential construction industry do not think the current apprenticeship model is serving the sector well; few changes in recent years have improved apprenticeship for our employers or workers.

Recent meetings between CHBA – Alberta and senior officials with AIT have shown some promise for reform. Community and private colleges have indicated they are interested in working with the industry to deliver training based on a new approach that is customized for residential trades.





For the past several years, national and provincial CHBA efforts have been directed towards increasing awareness of and support for a trades specialization approach to residential carpentry training programs and apprenticeship recognition. A recent industry-led initiative by provincial Home Builders’ Associations in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland involves agreement to develop the required standards and training models. This could include development of a single residential construction program, with identical standards and common certification for four separate non-compulsory trades currently included in the one carpentry program - framer, cribber/form worker, exterior finisher and interior finisher.

This new approach is important to our industry because it:

reflects the reality of how work is organized and performed in the home building and renovation industry;

reflects home building and renovation technologies, materials and techniques; provides a flexible, modularized provincial and national standard;

equips more workers with formal training, marketable skills, and recognition and credentials through prior learning assessment;

and provides more pathways for young people, unemployed persons and workers to enter and advance within the industry.

There are thousands of skilled workers in trades specialization areas in our industry who have no formal training or credential to build on. As new apprenticeship programs are developed, it will be important to promote a challenge opportunity for existing trades workers to obtain credentials for their skills. This is well recognized and supported as a retention incentive for current employees.