An introduction to the construction trades will take place in several regions of Quebec in the coming months, in order to convince people to go into this industry or redirect their career.
These Construction Trades Camps were launched Friday by two ministers, Kateri Champagne Jourdain (Employment) and Jean Boulet (Labour), accompanied by the President and CEO of the Commission de la construction du Québec, Audrey Murray, and the President of the Quebec Construction Association, Éric Fraser.
As part of these camps, participants will be introduced free of charge to the trades of carpenter-joiner, bricklayer-mason, plasterer, shovel operator and electrician. This will be a one-day hands-on experience.
“We come to try out a construction profession for a day. We’re going to see what training also looks like, because it’s really going to be like the training that is given in these professions. It lasts for a day. We provide dinner so people can have peace of mind and then stay there all day effectively. So it’s really an immersion in the world of training, but also in the world of construction,” Minister Champagne Jourdain explained in an interview on Friday.
Promote among certain groups
Construction Trades Camps particularly target groups underrepresented in the industry, such as women and Indigenous people, but also young people and those considering a career change. Interested parties must be at least 15 years old.
These camps will visit Sept-Îles, Pessamit, Jonquière and Gatineau in October, then Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Anjou and Longueuil in November. Laval will follow on November 30 and December 1, as well as Montreal and Sherbrooke next February.
“In Quebec, we have big projects. We want housing to improve. We want to build hospitals, schools, or renovate them. It takes people to build,” summarized Minister Champagne Jourdain.
The Quebec Construction Commission estimates labor needs in the industry at 17,000 people annually, on average until 2025.
The activity comes from an idea from the Association de la construction du Québec — an industry employers’ association, specializing in the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors — which received the sum of $1.3 million from the government of Quebec to carry out the project.
“These are beautiful professions; these are professions which also allow us to earn a good living,” underlines the Minister of Employment.
She therefore wants to promote construction professions in general. “Maybe it hasn’t been done, in recent years, in recent decades, as much as it should have been. »