Across Quebec, vocational training centers (CFPs) are ceasing to teach skilled trades essential in the construction industry, with construction sites welcoming many employees without a diploma in the context of the shortage, noted The duty. “A perfect storm” which Quebec promises to tackle.
CFP Paul-Rousseau, in Drummondville, fears in particular having to stop offering his training in tinsmithing, already offered in few establishments in Quebec. “We have a lot of trouble leaving our groups, from one year to the next, it’s extremely painful. And when we keep our group of students, we leave it in a very deficit way. We are talking about a loss of 100,000 dollars for us”, the number of registered students not being sufficient to cover the salaries of the teachers, explains the director of the establishment, Yves Langlois.
Meanwhile, plumbing and heating training is “uncertain” for next August at the CFP Pavillon-de-l’Avenir, in Rivière-du-Loup, due to a “significant drop in registrations” , says communications advisor Stéphanie Gendron. Two students have registered for this training so far, out of a total of twenty places.
The School of Trades and Occupations in the Construction Industry, based in Quebec City, for its part, ceased to offer training in laying flexible flooring last August due to a lack of enrollment in this program. Uncertainty also reigns for four other training courses, including those of bricklayer and cement worker, for which “we currently do not have enough students registered to confirm the start of the cohorts” at the next school year, confirms a door- floor, Manon Jomphe.
“There is a big lack of valuation of the DEP” by the Quebec government, deplores Éric Girard, who teaches plumbing and heating at the School of Construction Trades in Montreal. By email, the establishment indicates that it has noted a drop in attendance in eight of its programs. Thus, several teachers have been “laid off” in anticipation of next fall, due to the lack of enrollment in several programs, says Mr. Girard. “I don’t know where we are going”, launches the one who fears that this situation will harm the “retention” of teachers in this establishment.
Employees without a diploma
However, the number of employees active in the construction industry in Quebec increased by 3.6% last year to reach 197,925, according to the most recent data from the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ).
However, of the 20,378 employees who entered this sector last year, 76% did not have a DEP in the field for which they were hired, while 24% of them were graduates. This situation can be explained in particular by the increased recourse, in recent years, to “basins”, in the context of the labor shortage. These allow employers in different regions to recruit workers without a diploma in the field for which they are hired, on condition that they undertake to follow an annual training course of thirty hours in the targeted trade, as well as a health and safety course on construction sites.
Vocational training on school benches thus find themselves threatened by this quick access door to construction sites, with all the risks that this raises, worry the trade unions.
“In the fairly near future, we will end up with a construction industry in Quebec that will be deficient in terms of skills, that’s clear,” also apprehends the general manager of the FTQ-Construction, Eric Boisjoly. The latter also fears that employees who enter construction sites without a diploma will not be able to adopt the right behaviors to ensure their safety at all times. “We still have a worker who was seriously injured last week, crushed by a mechanical shovel,” he says.
Employees who entered the industry by “basins” have also failed in recent years to complete their annual 30-hour training, without suffering any consequences from the CCQ, learned The duty. ” It could happen. But hey, that’s life,” said CCQ President and CEO Diane Lemieux in an interview. However, she assures that the organization has overhauled its obsolete “computer systems” to tackle this problem. “We are much more rigorous in respecting the training obligation, that’s clear. »
In the fairly near future, we will find ourselves with a construction industry in Quebec that will be deficient in terms of skills, that is clear.
CCQ data also show that the dropout rate for construction employees reaches 40% after five years for employees without a diploma, compared to 24% for employees with a DEP in their pocket. Thus, by relying on employees without diplomas to counter the labor shortage, “we patch a boo in the short term, but which will be much bigger in the long term”, illustrates the president of the Quebec Provincial Council of construction trades, Michel Trépanier.
“It’s a fact, people who enter by basin, so without a diploma, their retention is less good. We escape more. But there, we are caught in a dilemma, because if we do not open any more basins, we will run out of manpower. So we are really in a perfect storm, ”notes Diane Lemieux.
In this context, initiatives are emerging to facilitate work-study balance for students in the process of obtaining a DEP, in order to eventually have better trained employees on construction sites, without exacerbating the labor shortage in the meantime. ‘work. “Adapted training courses have been set up, in which students have the opportunity to work on the construction site, in a study-work alternation during their training”, indicates in writing the Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, who works these days on a reform of the code that governs work in industry in Quebec. “Others will follow soon,” he adds.
“The second measure aims to favor graduates by allowing them to access the qualification examination to access the status of journeyman more quickly than non-graduates”, adds the Minister. The latter, however, does not intend to review the conditions for opening pools, these gateways to employees without a diploma on construction sites. These, he argues, “adapt to market needs”.