London, Ont. training centre sees growing interest in skilled trades
A shortage of skill trades workers has put a strain on the construction industry, but a local training centre is helping to improve the situation.
“We find ourselves in a bit of a skilled trades shortage, with large infrastructure projects ongoing, current membership reaching retirement age, and a limited pool of labour to pull from,” says Brandon MacKinnon from LiUNA 1059.
The union says they have been actively recruiting new apprentices to be trained at their centre in south London
“About five years ago, we were taking on roughly 30 new apprentices, in this past year we took 120.”
The training centre recreates real-world scenarios for fledgling trades people says Training Director Mike Rupp.
“The training centre here is a new campus that we moved into a couple of years ago, where we have pre-apprentices and member apprentices come to take the practical training that they need as part of their apprenticeship.”
And the push to get people interested in the trades is starting younger than ever, MacKinnon explains.
“Targeting youth as young as elementary school, high Sshool, we started to focus on underrepresented groups, including women in construction, Indigenous groups, new Canadians.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
What a urologist wants you to know about male infertility
When opposite sex couples are trying and failing to get pregnant, the attention often focuses on the woman. That’s not always the case.
He replaced Mickey Mantle. Now baseball's oldest living major leaguer is turning 100
The oldest living former major leaguer, Art Schallock turns 100 on Thursday and is being celebrated in the Bay Area and beyond as the milestone approaches.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.