A Parent's Journey: Supporting and Guiding the Apprenticeship Process

As a parent, I’ve found it has been very important to provide support and guidance to my son throughout this journey.

We started by going to a school information night to learn more about the trades and we also heard about the co-op education program there. I had to be persistent about accessing the co-op program for my son. If I didn’t keep at the school, I would be brushed off. I was also told to find an employer who would take him on for co-op. When the school ended up finding a reputable, family-run electrical contracting business, close to our Ottawa area home, for his co-op placement I was elated!   

I made sure my son had the hard hat, safety boots and other clothing he needed for this job. He also needed help to complete his time sheets. They were very detailed and had to include information like hours worked, location, breaks and starting and finishing times.

The co-op was a godsend because it provided my son with a productive activity. He would be picked up at 7 am every day. The employer also kept him on for the summer to do maintenance work around his home.  

In 2014, near the end of high school, the employer registered him as an apprentice. I had looked into having him registered earlier as I had read on the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP) website that apprentices could be registered while they were in high school. Despite making numerous inquiries, I couldn’t find any more information on this. I felt very frustrated about running into these dead ends and the fact that the employer did not count all my son’s hours when he was registered.

I’ve found very little support for my son pursuing a career in the trades. I would tell other parents about his plans to become an electrician and hear, “We’re not going that route.” There are still a lot of stereotypes out there about the trades somehow being less than other occupations. There should be more recognition of the important role electricians and other tradespeople play and their skills and expertise. It’s a demanding job. Electricity can be dangerous and I know when I have an electrical problem, I want a smart, skilled person to fix it.   

When it came time for my son to do his Basic Level 1 trade school training, I wondered how it would go. He is a bright kid, but not crazy about book learning. He came home from class, slapped his Electrical Code book on the table and said, “I can’t do it.”  I thought I’d try my hand at his quiz to see if I could help. I looked up the first five questions and found the answers easily in the Code book. So, I told him, “If I can do it, you can do it.” He was still resistant, but I made him sit down and go through the quiz with me. He got the hang of it and realized he could do the work.

My son continued working with the employer who took him on as a co-op student until 2017. It was an excellent company with great benefits, 50 percent contributions to RRSPs, bonuses and holiday parties. Unfortunately, he went through a rough patch when he was in a terrible car accident and dealing with other issues and was let go. This was a terrible, terrible blow. We later learned he had been having difficulty on a new jobsite with a rougher culture and remarks verging on bullying. In retrospect, I can see he could have benefitted from coaching to deal with the work situation and possibly taking a stress leave from the job.

My son went on to find work with a former co-worker who had started his own business. This went well until COVID-19 hit and he was laid off. There was a silver lining in this because it led us to Support Ontario Youth.  We found SOY through Indeed while looking for jobs in the electrical field. SOY placed my son with a local electrical contractor, and he has been doing very well in the job.

I’m so glad that SOY can help and support my son now. We’ve found the apprenticeship system and all the required paperwork to be confusing and difficult at times. We’ve had some truly frustrating experiences like receiving an offer for trade school a month after the class started.

The fact that SOY works with employers to conduct apprentice performance evaluations is another benefit. If there had been a performance evaluation available with my son’s first employer, it might have identified the problems so solutions could be found while keeping him employed.

Writing the Certificate of Qualification (CofQ) exam will be another big challenge for my son. I’ve checked out a practice exam and have created my own practice exam to help him study. As my husband says, “We may not know when our son will become a licensed electrician, but Judy certainly could with all the work she has done!”

The bottom line is, I’m grateful that SOY will be there for my son through the rest of his apprentice journey, including writing the CofQ.