Training

Hands-on training is one of the best ways to learn. As the owner or manager of a business, it's probably how you started out. Ambition, eagerness to learn, and hard work got you where you are today. Hiring apprentices helps pass on your – and your journeypersons' – knowledge and experience. In addition, training a new generation of trades people will help your business stay on the leading edge.

Skilled Workforce

Ensuring a skilled workforce is available now and in the future is important for the sustainable growth of your business. By hiring apprentices, you'll ensure that you have qualified and productive employees today and tomorrow.

Competitiveness

You're concerned about your bottom line and competitive advantage in the marketplace. That's natural. But you also have to think about how to stay competitive. With an apprenticeship program, you get workers with on-the-job and in-school training laying the foundation for improving your competitiveness in the future.

Profitability

Given the importance of a healthy bottom line, it's critical to train a motivated and skilled workforce to meet your needs and to ensure a competitive advantage. Apprentices require good academic skills and with your on-the-job training, it makes for a profitable and smart investment for you and your business.

Return on Investment

The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum Return on Training Investment report took a positive step forward in providing empirical evidence that there is a cost-benefit to hiring apprentices. It found that, on average, for each dollar invested in an apprentice, a direct benefit of $1.38 accrues to employers or a net return of $0.38.

 

Why should we invest in training today for a more prosperous tomorrow?

  • Baby Boomer retirements are going to leave British Columbia with a deficit of at least 110,000 jobs by 2016.
  • Retirement will open up 650,000 jobs by then, with only 540,000 replacement workers coming through the education pipeline.
  • We will be faced with 110,000 vacant positions - and that does not include job growth associated with an economic upswing.
  • By 2016, 30 per cent of British Columbia's population will be 55 years of age or older, and
  • By 2018, $378 billion will be lost to our province's GDP if the skilled labour gap is not filled.