Support Ontario Youth Helps Companies Find Apprentices and Hire Talent Article

Special to Ontario Construction News

Many small subcontractors want to attract talent to grow their organization. However, on-site work, managing payroll, and developing client relationships leaves a small and medium enterprise (SME) little time to recruit. Likewise, as more high school graduates and adults look to pursue a trade, many are unsure of how to begin and who to contact for guidance.

Support Ontario Youth (SOY) is a government-funded service which serves as the conduit between the Ministry of Labour, Skilled Trades Ontario, apprentices, and employers. As a Group Sponsor, they work with both union and non-union organizations to match and place apprentices. Group sponsorship is a model which allows a third-party to manage the registered training agreement (which can be onerous administratively) and other responsibilities related to a company finding and registering an apprentice. They complete the human resource tasks required to add a new apprentice to the workforce at no cost so that a SME can focus on on-boarding and training.

“We register apprentices on behalf of employers. Typically, in the apprenticeship pathway, the employer and sponsor are the one in the same; we simplify the process by taking on the sponsorship role which allows the employer to focus on hiring and training their apprentice,” said Melanie Winter, the executive director of SOY. “There is a lot of administration in the apprenticeship pathway which is a huge burden especially for small to mid-size contractors within the trades”

As of November 30, SOY has supported 830 apprentices total since inception, with 48 becoming journeypersons.

Under the group sponsor model, apprentices can move from one SOY employer to another SOY employer with no administrative burden because their registered training agreement (RTA) lies with SOY. If the apprentice moves on to a new employer, their RTA would need to be transferred or they would have the option to join SOY’s membership and allow the support to continue for the benefit of the apprentice and the new employer.

Read the full article here.