Merlinda Asimi’s father saved for years in hopes his daughter would one day go to university.
In Asimi’s immigrant Albanian family, higher education was seen as a path towards social mobility and a secure job.
“[T]hat’s kind of the life that was laid out for me,” said Asimi.
But in a grade 11 physics class, Asimi realized white-collar work was not for her.
“I’m going to be miserable,” she said, recalling her feeling in that class.
Today, Asimi is a 23-year-old millwright apprentice in Toronto. She is months into a four-year training program, after which she will be qualified to install, maintain and repair industrial machinery. She also completed a two-year welding program from Durham College in 2024.
Asimi says her family was disappointed by her decision to forgo university for the trades. But she has no regrets.
“You’re always learning and I just love that,” she said. “I need something that keeps me on my toes at all times.”
Asimi is part of a growing number of young people drawn to the skilled trades — a field many Canadians long perceived as undesirable.
“There were a number of generations where we said, ‘Well, that’s your hobby, that’s not a job,” said Sarah Watts-Rynard, CEO and spokesperson at Polytechnics Canada, a non-profit representing Canadian colleges.
“You go and work in accounting all day and then, if you want to work with wood or you want to do welding, do it in your spare time.”
Susan Crowley, executive director at the Canadian Welding Bureau, a certification organization, says the skilled trades have been — often unfairly — characterized by the “three D’s”: dirty, dangerous and difficult.
Data suggest that attitude is changing. A 2025 study by the Diversity Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University found Canadians are now twice as likely to encourage a young person to pursue a trades apprenticeship than a general university degree.
Challenging job market
A confluence of factors seem to be driving the shift.
One is a challenging job market. Youth unemployment is almost double the national average at 12.7 per cent, and has been elevated for years.
Major employers in banking, media and the public service have been downsizing, making young people rethink the university pathway.
“A lot of the places that I think you could count on [for] stable employment, it’s clear, that’s not so stable anymore,” said Wendy Cukier, founder of the Diversity Institute and professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at Toronto Metropolitan University.
“There’s just a re-evaluation of where the opportunities are.”
Artificial intelligence has added to young people’s worries. Boxi Yang, a senior research associate at Signal 49 (formerly the Conference Board of Canada), says many entry-level positions in white-collar fields are particularly threatened by AI.
“A lot of these routine tasks are very easily automated away,” she said, pointing to data collection and preliminary research as two examples.
However, Yang says Canada’s sluggish economic performance is the main factor behind young Canadians’ entry-level woes.
“When there’s a shock in the labour market, young people usually get hit first, and that includes undergrad graduates.”
But trades work remains in high demand in many parts of the country.
The construction industry, for example, has a job vacancy rate of four per cent — compared to a private sector vacancy rate of 2.8 per cent nationally — with nearly 50,000 unfilled jobs across Canada.
The high vacancy rate is due in part to the sector grappling with an aging workforce. Twenty per cent of Canada’s construction labour force is expected to retire in the next decade.
Crowley, of the Canadian Welding Bureau, notes a similar trend in the welding industry.
“There’s a real gap in the welding workforce that’s just getting larger and larger across Canada,” she said.
Ottawa has set a goal of training up to 100,000 Red Seal workers over the next five years. It has pledged $6 billion to improve training facilities, boost digitization and incentivize employers to take on apprentices. Some provinces are taking similar steps.
The Carney government’s focus on major nation-building projects — including housing, pipelines and high-speed rail — could further boost demand for trades workers.
“When governments … undertake major projects … all of those things need skilled trades people,” said Watts-Rynard.
And the threat from AI or robotics seems, at least for now, distant. Most Canadian industries have been slow to adopt robotics, Canadian Affairs recently reported.
Asimi has seen robot welders in Asia that have given her pause. But she believes her work as a millwright is safe from AI.
“For now, it is kind of a good job to get into if [AI] your main worry,” she said.
Better ROI?
A shorter, less costly qualification process can also make tradeswork attractive.
The average tuition cost for a four-year undergraduate degree in Canada is about $30,000.
By contrast, it costs about $9,000 to obtain a welding certificate at Algonquin College in Ontario and takes just one year to complete.
Apprentices are also paid throughout their training, creating a significant financial advantage early on in a career.
And early-career salaries can be substantial.
“An electrician five years out, [typically] earns more than an engineer,” said Cukier, of Toronto Metropolitan University. “So if you’re motivated by job security, and income, those are going to be really, really important.”
The median wage for an electrician in Canada is $35 per hour. For carpenters it is $32, and welders, $30.
Perceptions about the skilled trades are changing as well.
Watts-Rynard, of Polytechnics Canada, says she sees academically strong students thrive in the trades.
“The skilled trades is not for people who did poorly in school and had no other choice. It’s actually for people who want to work with their hands and are good at math that they can do in their heads,” she said.
“I think that the messaging of society is starting to catch up with the reality of a skilled trades career.”
Watts-Rynard says that, in a highly digitized world, many young people find it appealing to not work on screens all day.
“Not being tied to computers and technology every moment is something that people, I think, are starting to recognize the benefit of,” she said.
Connor Brown, an Ottawa-based stone mason who went into the trades after completing a history degree at Carleton University, says the physical nature of trades work is one of many things he enjoys about his job.
“I physically bled for this work, I know what I put into this and this is what I get out of it,” said Brown, 27. “That’s a very nice physical picture to paint at the end of the day.”
He enjoys working with a tight-knit crew every day — something he doubts he would find in an office environment.
“It really is a village,” he said. “There’s no better guys to be in the trenches with.”
And he appreciates the clear separation between his work and personal life. “At the end of the day, you can just clock out and go home,” he said.
Crowley, of the Canadian Welding Bureau, agrees that the trades’ appeal is partly about values.
“[Young people] are looking for work that aligns with their values and is purpose driven,” she said. “Welding is definitely one of those. There’s a lot pride among … welders in the work that they do.”
Asimi, the millwright apprentice, says she takes enormous pride in her work.
“[If] you look at a building you helped put up, every time you go past that building, that’s something where you can look at it and you’re, like, ‘I made that happen. I put that there,’” she said.
“It’s a moment of … pride that I don’t think you’ll ever get in an office.”
And her family has ultimately come to accept her career choice. She has even become the family’s handyperson — answering questions about tools and changing car filters.
“Now they come and ask me for things,” she said. “I’m the only one in the house who is skilled that way.”
Wow, I love this! I especially enjoyed the article about the young people going into the trades. I’m a 76 year old woman and I’ve always wished I could build things myself (like cabinets) and repair things in my home.
Think about it! How many of the skilled trades can AI replace? Can AI be intuitive?