Toronto – The Ontario College of Trades and Skills Ontario have committed to work together to raise awareness and attract people to careers in the skilled trades.
George Gritziotis, Ontario College of Trades (OCOT) chief executive officer and registrar, and Ian Howcroft, Skills Ontario chief executive officer, have signed a memorandum of understanding that focuses on enhancing outreach activities to promote careers in the skilled trades to key audiences including youth, parents, educators, government, labour, employers/sponsors and other stakeholders.
This memorandum of understanding (MOU) was introduced, in part, to address concerns about Canada’s shortage of tradespeople, OCOT said in a new release. The college cited recent research by Workopolis that suggests the shortage will hit one million by 2020 and is fuelled by baby boomers retiring.
“Working in partnership built on shared tools, resources, and objectives this MOU will help direct our efforts to encourage more young people to pursue the skilled trades which can provide a rewarding and well-paying career,” said George Gritziotis, chief executive officer and registrar of the Ontario College of Trades.
“I look forward to continuing to build on our constructive cooperation in the interest of enhancing the skilled trades in the province,” said Ian Howcroft, chief executive officer of Skills Ontario.
The partnership seeks to combine the strengths of both organizations and will focus on engaging more employers by highlighting the business and economic value of their participation, and supporting trades education and apprenticeships. Specifically, it will bring together resources from both organizations to build programs to inspire more educators and parents to incorporate skilled trades-related activities into school programs and in their discussions on the viability of careers in the skilled trades.
The MOU highlights the promise to work collaboratively with government, encourage continued support of apprenticeship modernization, and enable greater completion rates and increased rates of graduation to journeyperson class.
For more information on the skilled trades in Ontario, go to collegeoftrades.ca and skillsontario.com.
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