I want to begin by thanking you, Mr. Chair, and the committee, for the opportunity for our organization to present. It's the first time we've had this opportunity, so it's very much appreciated.
You've heard a lot about the statistics, the problems, the shortages, the growing demands, the projects that are upcoming, and the need for workers. I'm here to present the view from a youth perspective, if I can, to try to give you an idea of some of the barriers that we see they're facing. We really see that as one of the first steps in trying to address the skills gap and skills shortage. Unfortunately, I think we're still battling negative perceptions of skilled trades. Mothers and fathers, and even peers to a certain extent, still hold the view that there are not valuable careers available in the skilled trades and technology areas.
Just to provide you with a little background on our organization, we are a national organization with offices in all 10 provinces and three territories. We're governed by a voluntary board of directors. Our mission is to encourage and support a coordinated Canadian approach to promoting skilled trades and technologies to youth. What we're really about are interactive sensory experiences providing youth not just the opportunity to take away a piece of paper telling them about specific careers, but they actually get to try them.
We do that through a number of different activities, including skills clubs and camps, cardboard boat races at the junior high and elementary level, young women's conferences, and activities focused on some of those underrepresented groups. But the activity that we're most well-known for is competitions, where we bring youth from across the country together to participate in regional, provincial, national, and international competitions. It gives those young people a real perspective on what's involved in skilled trades and technology careers.
We believe that what we need to do is to reach students at a young age. We need to provide information and an activity so that they can really understand what's involved in skilled trades and technology careers. In our competitions each year, we have more than 100,000 students participate, starting at the school level. We have about 600 competitors at the national level.
The more important piece, along with those students who are participating as competitors, is that we also have try-a-trade and technology competitions. Visitors to those competitions, which are set up in a convention centre style, find these very conducive to media and public participation. I just flew back last night from Edmonton, where we were hosting the national competition at the EXPO Centre. We had over 200,000 square feet of floor space in the centre, offering more than 40 different trades room for participation. We also had visiting schools from around Edmonton and province there. Students had the opportunity to try a trade or a technology. They could try to build a brick wall or wire a circuit board, or colour someone's hair to give them that sensory experience so they have a better understanding of what's involved in those occupations. We think that is crucial.
You've heard already a little bit about the challenge, the aging demographic that we're battling against, and also an economy that is rich in natural resources and that will definitely have a demand for skilled trades and technology workers in mining, energy, and the construction industries.
You've heard some comments earlier. Some of our recommendations include, obviously, continued emphasis on worker mobility through the Red Seal program. We think that is key. It is a national standard.
We would also like to see some expansion of that into apprenticeship recognition, which is happening on a bilateral basis from province to province. Again, that's extremely positive. If people are starting training and have gathered experience and have the hours, they are now moving to the jobs to try to meet that economic demand. We want to see things in place that can really support that progress. That's obviously important.
We need to clearly communicate the business case to employers about why they should train apprentices. Again, you heard earlier about the return on training investment that the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum completed a number of years ago. On average, for every dollar invested in the more than 16 trade areas they studied, $1.37 came back in return to those companies.
We need to continue to deliver that message about training, and we need to develop some better career pathways for young people so they understand that if they enter into a specific trade area, become certified, get their journeyperson status, and want to progress to different elements in that industry, there are opportunities to do that. If they start as a carpenter they can become a foreman, a project manager, or an estimator. We need to clearly identify that to those young people.
We also recommend some stronger alignment between all the systems of education and training. It was mentioned earlier that we need to get to youth at a younger age, and we definitely support that. We need to provide opportunity and information to young people at a young age so they realize they can progress through the system of education to do something they want to do.
When we talk about youth we are obviously talking about under-represented groups. We feel it is important to have specific programming focused on women and aboriginals. We think that is key. It is probably key in keeping those people in communities, especially when we're looking at rural communities, trying to provide, if not training, at least information to people in those communities so they understand what some of the opportunities available to them are with some of these projects. Many of them are in remote locations.
We need to have a system with a real connection between education and what industry is looking for. Most importantly, we need young people to understand that parents believe skilled trades are valuable careers.
We participated in a joint study with the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum back in 2006, and we asked an interesting question. We asked parents if they felt they had provided positive messages to their children about skilled trades. About 68% felt they had provided positive messages about careers in skilled trades. When we polled the parents' children, only 24% said they had received positive messages from their parents. So there's obviously a disconnect somewhere between the messages parents are sending out and what their sons and daughters are receiving. We think it's important to try to build on that.
I will close my comments there.