Quebec does not want to escape the new construction workers trained at high prices: as soon as the new cohorts were trained, retention measures were announced on Thursday.
“Entering the construction industry is a bit complicated,” admitted Labor Minister Jean Boulet at a press conference to justify this new component of his Construction Training Offensive, a program set up in October to fill the labor shortage.
No less than 4,000 students are registered for these accelerated paid training courses and the minister said he “reasonably anticipates” that 85-90% of graduates will pursue a career in their field.
It is impossible to force all graduates to choose their field, even if they were paid $750 per week by the state to learn the basics of the profession.
“In terms of administrative efficiency, it was not possible to oblige, follow each person, or impose a bureaucracy which does not meet the objective,” he explained during a press conference in a tinsmithing classroom at a trade school in Quebec.
However, he recalled a sort of moral obligation, echoing testimonies reporting that people had registered to carry out work in their homes.
“You receive a financial incentive that comes from public funds, it is not for personal purposes, it is to meet collective needs. »
The general director of the Association of Construction and Housing Professionals of Quebec, Maxime Rodrigue, affirmed that “the vast majority of those who have followed this training have ambitions to work in the industry”.
Since Thursday, employers can now hire students who complete these accelerated training courses of 500 to 700 hours in the carpenter, tinsmith, refrigeration worker, heavy equipment operator and mechanical excavator operator trades.
The Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) will communicate with employers in particular to inform them on ways to approach the future workforce.
She also created a web page entitled “jechoseislaconstruction”: it will indicate, among other things, the procedure to follow to obtain an apprentice competency certificate. Indeed, the graduates’ journey is far from over.
“You must obtain an apprentice competency certificate and provide all the information,” said Minister Boulet. What is the apprenticeship regime? What type of job is it? How is it paid? What are the working conditions? Who are the contractors they will work for? »
The Construction Training Offensive is a new route to the construction professions created last fall.
The best known paths to entering the construction industry are obtaining a Diploma of Professional Studies (regular training, therefore longer than that of an AEP), as well as opening hand pools -work, when there is a lack of workers in a trade or occupation in a given region.