Vocational training | The AWF alerts the Minister of Education

Granting professional study diplomas to 30,000 students over the next three years will require hundreds of teachers who are not yet trained, denounces the Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE).

Teachers will take advantage this Tuesday of a conference by the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, in front of employers at the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM) to go and offer him concrete solutions in response to this problem.

The employers gathered at the CCMM conference want a skilled workforce, and the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, has promised to provide it. However, to succeed in this feat in a context that has become more complex, the FAE wants to participate in the discussions so that we hear its solutions.

Because the teachers who are on the ground already see the obstacles that Minister Bernard Drainville will have to overcome, explains in an interview Mélanie Hubert, president of the FAE, which represents more than 60,000 preschool, primary, secondary and vocational training teachers. and adult education.

M^me Hubert cites as an example the new orderlies hastily trained during the pandemic to work in CHSLDs and who are not qualified to work at home and in hospitals.

The president also raises the vicious circle of taking professionals out of their workplace to transform them into teachers who train the workforce while at the same time contributing to fueling the labor shortage.

DEP teachers do not have a baccalaureate

The Minister of Education has suggested bringing back rapid university training in pedagogy for those who already have a bachelor’s degree in another field. However, this option is not possible for future teachers in vocational training, most of whom hold a vocational study diploma (DEP) or an attestation of vocational specialization (ASP). Currently, non-legally qualified teachers are hired if they enroll in the baccalaureate program – 4 years, 120 credits – often completed in 10 years.

“These university studies are carried out part-time in the evenings and on weekends. However, last December, Minister Drainville declared that vocational training teachers will have to show flexibility and teach evenings and weekends. How will they manage to combine the two? It will be almost impossible! Not to mention that many teachers themselves have children or elderly parents they have to take care of,” observes the president.

The wage shock

Éric Girard says he was shocked when he decided to make the jump from plumbing to teaching in 2010.

The context of the job market was different, explains the plumbing teacher at the School of Construction Trades in Montreal. He had just lost his position at the Shell Canada refinery, in the east of Montreal, which was changing vocation. The possibility of no longer working outside in the cold and having regular hours convinced him to embark on a bachelor’s degree which he has not yet finished after more than 10 years.

“I discovered a passion for teaching, the courses at the university helped me a lot to teach, but if I had to do it again today, I would change my option and I would find myself a manager position. of project. »

A university graduate in education starts at salary step 3, while the professional with a DEP will have his years of experience counted to determine the starting step. If the teacher has worked 10 years as a plumber, he will be given the salary equivalent to step 10.

The FAE estimates that more than 30,000 students will need to be persuaded to enroll in training if this number of graduates is to be achieved, as the graduation rate is around 53%.