The Canadian Council of Directors of Apprenticeship is a partnership between Canada's federal, provincial and territorial governments. It supports the development of skilled trades in Canada and manages the Interprovincial Standards Red Seal Program. [1]
It works to harmonize apprenticeship standards across different jurisdictions. [2] The council itself has no powers, but the representatives may hold regulatory powers through specific provincial/territorial legislation.
The Council has 15 members: One official from each provincial or territorial jurisdiction, who is responsible for the apprenticeship programs in each area, and two representatives from the Federal government: one from the Department of Employment, and one from Social Development Canada.
It runs 3 different awards programs.
The Darryl Cruickshank Memorial Award [3] is awarded every 2 years on even numbered years to someone in industry who "demonstrated inspirational leadership in the promotion and development of apprenticeship training for aspiring skilled tradespersons"
The Red Seal Award of Excellence [4] is awarded every 2 years on odd numbered years to someone in who is "providing outstanding achievement in the development and promotion of apprenticeship training in Canada.
The CCDA Award for Excellence in Apprenticeship Education "award honours apprenticeship educators and training instructors who deliver innovative and top quality instructional programming to apprentices in Red Seal Trades." and is awarded every 2 years on odd years.
Vocational education is education that prepares people to a skilled craft as an artisan, trade as a tradesperson, or work as a technician. Vocational Education can also be seen as that type of education given to an individual to prepare that individual to be gainfully employed or self employed with requisite skill. Vocational education is known by a variety of names, depending on the country concerned, including career and technical education, or acronyms such as TVET and TAFE.
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulated occupation. Most of their training is done while working for an employer who helps the apprentices learn their trade or profession, in exchange for their continued labor for an agreed period after they have achieved measurable competencies.
Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters traditionally worked with natural wood and did rougher work such as framing, but today many other materials are also used and sometimes the finer trades of cabinetmaking and furniture building are considered carpentry. In the United States, 98.5% of carpenters are male, and it was the fourth most male-dominated occupation in the country in 1999. In 2006 in the United States, there were about 1.5 million carpentry positions. Carpenters are usually the first tradesmen on a job and the last to leave. Carpenters normally framed post-and-beam buildings until the end of the 19th century; now this old-fashioned carpentry is called timber framing. Carpenters learn this trade by being employed through an apprenticeship training—normally 4 years—and qualify by successfully completing that country's competence test in places such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and South Africa. It is also common that the skill can be learned by gaining work experience other than a formal training program, which may be the case in many places.
A journeyman is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that field as a fully qualified employee. They earn their license by education, supervised experience and examination. Although journeymen have completed a trade certificate and are allowed to work as employees, they may not yet work as self-employed master craftsmen.
An electrician is a tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, transmission lines, stationary machines, and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance and repair of existing electrical infrastructure. Electricians may also specialize in wiring ships, airplanes, and other mobile platforms, as well as data and cable lines.
A plumber is a tradesperson who specializes in installing and maintaining systems used for potable (drinking) water, and for sewage and drainage in plumbing systems.
The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) is a polytechnic and applied sciences institute in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. NAIT provides careers programs in applied research, technical training, applied education, and learning designed to meet the demands of Alberta's technical and knowledge-based industries. NAIT offers approximately 120 credit programs leading to degrees, applied degrees, diplomas, and certificates. As of 2018, there are approximately 16,000 students in credit programs, 12,000 apprentices registered in apprenticeship training, 14,500 students enrolled in non-credit courses, and more than 20,000 registrants for customized corporate based training. NAIT also attracts international students from 94 countries. NAIT is similar to an Institute of technology or university of applied sciences as termed in other jurisdictions. The campus newspaper, the NAIT Nugget, is a member of the Canadian University Press (CUP).
Confederation College is a provincially funded college of applied arts and technology in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1967, and has campuses in Dryden, Fort Frances, Greenstone, Kenora, Marathon, Sioux Lookout, Red Lake and Wawa. The college serves an area of approximately 550,000 square kilometres. It is the only public college servicing Northwestern Ontario.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is a labor union that represents approximately 775,000 workers and retirees in the electrical industry in the United States, Canada, Guam, Panama, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands; in particular electricians, or inside wiremen, in the construction industry and lineworkers and other employees of public utilities. The union also represents some workers in the computer, telecommunications, and broadcasting industries, and other fields related to electrical work.
Lambton College is a publicly funded college in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. It has approximately 3,500 full-time students, 6,500 part-time students and 3,500 international students worldwide. Lambton College also has campuses in Mississauga and Toronto.
A glazier is a tradesman responsible for cutting, installing, and removing glass. They also refer to blueprints to figure out the size, shape, and location of the glass in the building. They may have to consider the type and size of scaffolding they need to stand on to fit and install the glass. Glaziers may work with glass in various surfaces and settings, such as cutting and installing windows, doors, shower doors, skylights, storefronts, display cases, mirrors, facades, interior walls, ceilings, and tabletops.
The Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System is Canada's national workplace hazard communication standard. The key elements of the system, which came into effect on October 31, 1988, are cautionary labelling of containers of WHMIS controlled products, the provision of material safety data sheets (MSDSs) and worker education and site-specific training programs.
The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, commonly known as the United Association (UA), is a labor union which represents workers in the plumbing and pipefitting industries in the United States and Canada.
The National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (NJATC) is the former name for the Electrical Training Alliance, a nonprofit organization created in 1941 by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA).
Instrument mechanics in engineering are tradesmen who specialize in installing, troubleshooting, and repairing instrumentation, automation and control systems. The term "Instrument Mechanic" came about because it was a combination of light mechanical and specialised instrumentation skills. The term is still is used in certain industries; predominantly in industrial process control.
The Ontario College of Trades was the regulatory body that governs skilled trades in Ontario. The College officially opened on April 8, 2013 and its activities are mandated by the Ontario College of Trades and Apprenticeship Act, 2009 (OCTAA).
North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU) is a labor federation of 14 North American unions in the building trade, founded by the American Federation of Labor in 1907.
Demetrios Nicolaides is a Canadian politician who was elected in the 2019 Alberta general election to represent the electoral district of Calgary-Bow in the 30th Alberta Legislature. He is a member of the United Conservative Party. On April 30, 2019, he was appointed to be the Minister of Advanced Education in the Executive Council of Alberta.
Red Seal Program, specifically known as The Interprovincial Standards Red Seal Program is a program that sets common standards for tradespeople in Canada. It is a partnership between the Canadian federal government, the provinces and the territories.
Apprenticeship programs in the United States are regulated by the Smith–Hughes Act (1917), The National Industrial Recovery Act (1933), and National Apprenticeship Act, also known as the "Fitzgerald Act."