After finishing a general arts degree at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2005, Martin Severino spent years working nomadically as a treeplanter and golf pro.
Eventually, at 35, he decided to pivot to the skilled trades and chose to settle in his hometown of Kingston, Ont.
To his surprise, getting qualified and employed as an electrician was not easy.
He spent a year trying — unsuccessfully — to get into his local electrician’s union hall, which takes on apprentices. He then waited two more years for the union hall to open its next apprentice intake.
When that finally happened, in 2019, it felt like he had finally got his break.
“When you do find someone that does [give you an opportunity], it’s like your world opens up,” he said.
Now 44, Severino holds a Red Seal certification as an electrician, the most popular trade in Canada.
Severino’s journey is an example of the challenges many people face getting their start in the skilled trades. Long waitlists at union halls and colleges, an outdated apprenticeship system, and cash-strapped colleges may be capping the sector’s potential.
“We do a great job with attraction … [But] we do a terrible job on progression and completion,” said Sarah Watts-Rynard, CEO and spokesperson at Polytechnics Canada, a non-profit representing Canadian colleges.
“When there is a real boost in interest, what you actually start finding is that the training system isn’t able to grow as fast as the demand is.”
Long wait times
Merlinda Asimi, a 23-year-old millwright apprentice in Toronto, says she was pleasantly surprised when she was admitted to her apprenticeship this year. She was one of about 50 applicants chosen, from a pool of hundreds.
As Canadian Affairs recently reported, interest in the skilled trades is booming. In 2024, there were over 100,000 newly registered apprentices across Canada, the highest number on record and up nearly six per cent from 2023.
But the path to completing an apprenticeship can be long.
In Asimi’s case, she will spend about four years getting qualified to install, maintain and repair industrial machinery. This number is typical for the industry. Most apprenticeships take two to five years to complete, with apprentices cycling between classroom training and on-the-job work under a sponsor.
After completing both components, a person can apply for a journeyperson certification, which boosts employment and pay opportunities.
Data show certifications have plateaued even as registrations have risen. Last year, 47,000 people were certified, up about one per cent from the prior year.
Watts-Rynard, of Polytechnics Canada, says one of the problems is the apprenticeship system is outdated.
“The apprenticeship system has been operating this way for 100 years,” she said.
While there is ample work for Red Seal workers across the country, there are numerous roadblocks to getting certified, says Watts-Rynard.
Red Seal trades account for about one-sixth of all of Canada’s 300 different trades, and cover skillsets as diverse as hairstyling and carpentry. Red Seal apprentices must pass a national exam at the end of their training, which qualifies them to work anywhere in Canada.
The federal government has prioritized training up to 100,000 Red Seal workers over the next five years and offers up to $10,000 to employers that hire a first-year apprentice.
Watts-Rynard says some sponsors are motivated by this subsidy to hire first-year apprentices — but are not necessarily committed to seeing apprentices complete their training.
Employers may pressure their apprentices to abandon the classroom component of their training, or apprentices may be enticed by a steady paycheque to not go back to class.
“One of the reasons that apprentices stall out a little bit — they don’t go back to technical training and keep moving through — is a fear around losing their paycheque, losing their position,” said Watts-Rynard.
Watts-Rynard encourages apprentices to ensure their sponsor supports them completing their training before they agree to an apprenticeship.
“You need an employer who’s also committed to your development and your timely completion of your apprenticeship,” she said.
Federal and provincial governments are also trying to modernize the apprenticeship pathway. For example, in April, the Prime Minister’s Office announced funding to digitize the Red Seal program and enable union halls to expand their capacity and upgrade their facilities.
Changed landscape
The colleges offering skilled trades programs face their own set of challenges.
Boxi Yang, a senior research associate at Signal 49 (formerly known as the Conference Board of Canada), points to a dearth of classroom instructors. He attributes this primarily to the significant earnings disparity between working in industry and teaching.
“Because of the job shortage, a lot of the people with Red Seal certification, who [are] capable of doing the training as an instructor, they prefer to work on the construction site as a manager.”
Post-secondary institutions have also seen a major increase in demand for trades programs — sometimes to the point that waiting lists are years-long, says Watts-Rynard.
“That is a significant challenge for Canada trying to encourage more and more people into the trades … there’s still a backlog,” she said. “If we don’t move people through that training in an efficient way, you just can’t expect that the system can catch up.”
Most colleges that offer trades programs are in a challenging financial situation. Since the federal government imposed sweeping cuts to its international student intake in 2024, institutions have cut staff and programs.
For example, Algonquin College in Ottawa cut 30 programs in January, including their horticulture techniques apprenticeship and manufacturing engineering technician programs.
While international student enrolment in the trades has always been low, their high tuition fees helped pay for trades programs, which are among the most expensive to run.
“When institutions no longer have profitable programs, they have no profit to offset the costs of expensive programs,” said Watts-Rynard.
Yang believes colleges across the country are now changing their business models to prioritize programs such as the skilled trades, which are in high demand.
“After that shock, it helped the post-secondary sector to rethink what their value proposition is. Because before that, the entire model was based on volume,” she said.
“[Now] they’re trying to link their value to labour market alignment.”
Truly remote work
Apprentices who complete their training may struggle to find work — at least in locations that appeal to them.
New “nation-building” projects are expected to drive demand for trades workers in coming years. But of the 22 projects referred to the federal Major Projects Office so far, only five are within 200 kilometres of a major city. The majority are in remote regions of the country, with seven in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
Susan Crowley, executive director at the Canadian Welding Bureau, a certification organization, says conditions for workers in remote regions have improved over recent years. And the higher wages for this work can be a draw.
But some young people would prefer to wait — or work less — to not have to relocate.
For Asimi, in Toronto, this has been the case. She says she has been tempted by opportunities outside the Greater Toronto Area, but has ultimately chosen to remain in the city to stay close to family.
“Obviously it makes my career harder because with the trades, you kind of do have to travel,” she said.
Of late, work has been slow, she says. But she is hopeful new developments by Ontario Power Generation — including the Darlington New Nuclear Project — will lead to consistent work for years to come.
She has also learned to prepare for slow periods by setting aside savings when she is working.
“You will have droughts of work,” she said. “You’ll have times where you’re working 12 hours a day every day, but you’ll also have times where there’s no work available.”
