Badgification of Apprenticeship in Ontario

Labour market analysts have claimed for some time now that an impending national skills shortage will have a drastic effect on Ontario’s growth and Canada’s economic health (Canadian Apprenticeship Forum, 2011; Kenney, 2013; Stuckey & Munro, 2013). However, some researchers have speculated that the skills gap, or mismatch as it is sometimes called, is not as severe as previously reported (Borwein, 2014). Still, the prevailing narrative in Canada’s media is that the skills shortage is real and will likely impact small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) more than larger companies (Cocolakis-Wormstall, 2018). Considering the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on the Ontarian labour market, it will be more important than ever to keep Ontarians working.

In response to this potential problem, Ontario’s Modernizing the Skilled Trades and Apprenticeship Act, 2019 was passed and announced the controversial implementation of Skill Sets: a competency-based framework which, by the authority of the Minister, specifies a group of job skills in which apprentices may certify and perform without supervision of a journeyperson or a Certificate of Qualification credential. The idea is to transition from Ontario’s current “Pokémon approach” (Dijkema & Speer, 2020), where an apprentice must demonstrate mastery of all required job skills before obtaining any certificate in Ontario’s apprenticeship system to a new approach that officially recognizes common skills shared between trades. The benefit to apprentices is said to be increased mobility - as projects cycle and employment needs change from phase to phase - and improved self-esteem - so tradespeople without journeyperson credentials do not feel like “failures” (Dijkema & Speer, 2020). However, for Training Delivery Agents (TDAs) and educators, much is still unknown about the Skill Sets instruction: Will there be an “in-class,” portion to the training? Will Skill Sets require new curriculum? Who determines when an apprentice has mastered a Skill Set for those not requiring exams? Many details need to be ironed out.

The link between the badges, digital credentials, and apprenticeship Skill Sets credentials cannot be ignored, and the mystery surrounding the Skill Set credentials speaks to the existing confusion about the definitions and value of competency-based credentials and badges between industries (lafrate, 2017). Apprentices that demonstrate competency via examination or other assessment method in a Skill Set will be eligible for a Certificate of Completion; however, some industry stakeholders, as reported by Wall (2019), feel that this credential undermines the entire apprenticeship system and devalues the Certificate of Qualification and the Red Seal, which is the only credential that is recognized interprovincially. Then again, perhaps the deconstruction of the current apprenticeship system is the point, as Dijkema and Speer (2020) argue, that trade credentials must be more flexible as a result of changing “technology, workplace organizations, and other factors,” as new policies attempt to address the labour shortage.

For the precision machining trades, I can imagine Skill Sets credentials making it difficult for apprentices to train to complete the entire suite of skills required to challenge the Certificate of Qualification exam. An employer may be less willing to cross-train and apprentice on milling equipment if the employer only needs the apprentice to set-up and operate a lathe for the foreseeable future. In this light, Skill Set credentials will make mobility more difficult, not better. After all, why would an employer want to pay a fully certified machinist for all the skills and experience they possess, when the employer only needs certain Skill Sets right now.

For better or worse, Skill Set credentials will certainly have a major impact on Ontario’s apprenticeship framework. Whether or not it will resolve Ontario’s skills gap, improve or hamper worker mobility, or require an entirely new curriculum to implement, remains to be seen.

Sources

Borwein, S. (2014). The great skills divide: a review of the literature. Higher Education

Quality Council of Ontario.

Canadian Apprenticeship Forum (2011). Creating Diversity and Career Opportunities in the

Skilled Trades. Ottawa: Canadian Labour and Business Centre.

Cocolakis-Wormstall, M. (2018). Labour Shortage: Here to Stay.

https://www.bdc.ca/en/documents/analysis_research/labour-shortage.pdf

Dijkema, B. and Speer, S. (2020). Advancing Structural Reforms to the Skilled Trades and

Apprenticeships in Ontario. Ontario 360 Policy Solutions for Ontario’s Prosperity.

Kenney, J. (2013, November). Keynote Speech. Presented to the Skills and Post-Secondary

Education Summit, Toronto, Ontario.

Stuckey, J. and Munro, D. (2013) The Need to Make Skills Work: The Cost of Ontario's Skills

Gap. https://www.orhma.com/Portals/0/Insider/2013/Need%20to%20Make%20Skills

%20Work%20-%20Report%20%28June%202013%29.pdf

Wall, D. (2019). Electrical Stakeholders Press Ministers on Skill Sets. Daily Commercial

News. 92(161), 1-3.