Evidence of meeting #66 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was apprenticeship.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Jean Rousseau NDP Compton—Stanstead, QC
I will have to ask my first question in French. It would be more difficult in English.
You are a great example of courage and perseverance for our youth.
How do disabled people and women fit into non-traditional trades as well as learning and apprenticeship programs? I would like to hear your thoughts on that.
Conservative
Student, Sheet Metal Worker (Apprenticeship), Algonquin College
What are the pathways for non-traditional work, more or less? Is it difficult...?
NDP
Jean Rousseau NDP Compton—Stanstead, QC
What's the ratio, the place, of handicapped persons in the non-traditional sector?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
First of all, we should make sure everyone gets the proper translation. You have an earpiece. We'll get the clerk to help you out here.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
Please ensure that you have your earpiece in and you are on channel one or two.
Is everybody okay?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
Just hold on a second. We'll make sure everything is working first.
You're good. Everybody is good.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki
We won't hold that against your time, Mr. Rousseau.
Start again.
NDP
Jean Rousseau NDP Compton—Stanstead, QC
I was asking about how women and disabled people fit into non-traditional trades. And how do they fit into learning and apprenticeship programs?
Student, Sheet Metal Worker (Apprenticeship), Algonquin College
Yes, I'm the one with the expertise on this one.
Student, Sheet Metal Worker (Apprenticeship), Algonquin College
This is the first time that I'm not. There are two women, but we're in different classes, for whatever reason. On the job site, I have only ever encountered two women, total, in my four years in the trade.
The only other disability I have encountered is hearing impairment. I don't know so much about the disabled aspect, but I'm welcomed with open arms. I have to have thick skin and be able to give jokes and take them, but that's construction in general. Nobody cares, really.
Yes, women are welcome. Join me.
NDP
NDP
Jean Rousseau NDP Compton—Stanstead, QC
Earlier, you mentioned something that I found very interesting. Nowadays, youth have no idea what a hammer, saw or a square are. Why is that? Yes, they watch movies. What kind of incentives do you think would draw them to non-traditional trades that need workers? Right now, there is a shortage of workers in those trades.
What kind of incentives are needed? Mr. Thorson can also answer this question.
Journeyman, Automotive Service Technician Program, Skills Canada
They need to have the opportunity to work with the tools. If they do not have the tools at home and no one works with their hands, if there is no auto mechanic or welding program at their high school and if they only have theory, youth will not have the opportunity to learn these trades.
Our culture today does not really give youth the chance the use these kinds of tools and to have the desire to learn a trade for themselves. If it does not happen in their high school, they may never pick up a hammer. People call someone—
sew on a button.
People call someone to do that work for them. It is very easy and anyone can do it if they can work with their hands.
Journeyman, Automotive Service Technician Program, Skills Canada
We are talking about working with their hands. They have to be given that opportunity.
Chief Executive Officer, Skills Canada
I think your question leads to one of the valuable things that a program like Skills Canada provides. It complements the existing education system and provides an opportunity for young people to actually hold a hammer, to hold a saw, to wire a circuit board, to have that sensory experience. I think that is key in establishing in the memory of students what that experience actually is. It's not just a piece of paper being handed to them that tells how apprenticeship works or what this career involves; it is actually something tangible they can do, something they can experience. They can take that memory back and start a discussion with teachers, parents, or career counsellors on what some of the options are in those career pathways.