Let me get you to comment on what our previous deputant said, because I made a note on this.
He said that one of the difficulties is cramming all the training into eight weeks. Irrespective of the EI issues, which is something I'm sure this committee will look at and make some recommendations on, can we allow people to break up the training into segments? It might allow somebody to take a segment of training and then go and do some work, which may or may not be related to their trade. It would allow them to earn some income and then come back and take another segment and then another segment. It may make the training last longer, but it'll provide some income support at the same time that they're going through an apprenticeship program to then become licensed and regulated within that profession.
Is that doable? Do these apprenticeship programs need to be done in a solid, intensive, 9-to-5, Monday-to-Friday format to be successful, or could you break them up into segments, which would allow somebody to take a couple of weeks of x and go and work for a month doing something to earn some income, and then come back and do another three-week segment, and then go and do some work, etc.?
Is that doable? Could you structure a program that way? I'm sure that being a skilled electrician is significant work, and you need to know a lot of things and do a lot of on-the-job training and safety training, etc. Does the nature of the work mean it is just not doable as far as your particular trades are concerned?