Ask anyone in the industry today where the majority of competence comes in an individual employee, and they will tell you there is no replacement for on the job training.

I could not tell you how many people we have trained in the 26 years I have been involved with Plains Fabrication. The number is well over 1,000 to date. Training happens every day a company operates. Well it does for Plains and a few other Alberta companies, but a growing trend has gripped this industry, and from our engineering companies to our manufacturing companies, fewer and fewer companies are employing apprentices. Let’s not get too wrapped up in the trades however. We train drafting people and project managers, and we train maintenance people and managers alike. Our company trains people on every level. Ask anyone in the industry today where the majority of competence comes in an individual employee, and they will tell you there is no replacement for on the job training. To confirm this, just look in the Help Wanted ads posted online. You will see experience is wanted above all other traits. Yes, some jobs require a university or trade school diploma, but overall, until you have three to five years on the job, you remain an unknown and often unwanted commodity. Until you have had a job and get the actual skill, which is only truly attained by doing the job everyday outside the classroom, most employers do not want you.

Plains Fabrication has done its part in training individuals for the past 26 years, and we are proud of that fact. However, if we look back to see what our efforts have truly earned us, we often train people and give them experience for which they turn and leave for higher paying jobs. Bigger companies pay bigger wages, and we are hard pressed to compete.

Plains isn’t going to stop apprenticing for any reason. We will continue to train the next generation, because it is the right thing to do.

No, we don’t expect to keep everyone. We hope to retain 50%, but when you think of the time and effort it takes our highly skilled workforce to train the next generation only to lose them to bigger companies that don’t have apprenticeship programs, I think you would see this is unfair. If we lost people to other companies that had apprenticeship programs, then perhaps our issue wouldn’t hold water. The fact is only 20% of Alberta companies have programs for apprenticeship and other training initiatives. Yet the ones that have them don’t see any benefit. We all play the same game, but the companies that don’t “apprentice” have an advantage, because they spend less on training. Their experts spend more time on the tools, so their margins are easier to attain, and in the end, the companies giving back to both Alberta and Canada get nothing in return.

So what would be an agreeable solution? I don’t like to come at a problem without having potential solutions ready. I think the first step is for the government to not only recognize the apprenticing and training issue but to come forward and make it more attractive to the companies that do teaching/training to receive something in the form of a tax credit.

Recently in the headlines, we have all read the issues concerning the foreign workers’ program. A few companies have made it difficult for the majority to operate and function properly. The government’s response is to call the industry out and demand they apprentice and look to Canadians first before going abroad. Why couldn’t part of the foreign workers’ requirements be a company must prove they have an apprenticeship program which encompasses 5%, or more, of their workforce?

This would create an immediate incentive for companies to start programs. To go one step further, provide a tax credit for every apprentice trained, which increases as the apprentice goes back each year to attain his or her next level. Plains isn’t going to stop apprenticing for any reason. We will continue to train the next generation, because it is the right thing to do. What I feel should happen is we recoup some of the cost of training. Eighty percent of learning takes place on the job; 20% happens in the classroom. The higher education system has an undeniable place in training, but the companies are bearing the burden of apprenticeship. Universities are paid to train, and companies are not. Yet 80% of the training happens on the job.

A new hire takes a lot of time and energy on the part of our most talented people to ensure they are evolving and working on the right thing at the right time in the right way. A person fresh out of school is not unleashed on a multi-million dollar project on his/her first day. This takes time, and it costs the company willing to apprentice thousands of dollars a month in lost productivity. Perhaps if there were more funds available, the number of companies willing to train would increase, but that is not the reason to create an incentive. The one and only reason to create it is for the companies that have been in business to not only earn profit but to give back to the community.