London, Ont. training centre sees growing interest in skilled trades

London, Ont. -

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.”