Yukon Building Trades Council aims to make training an election issue, president says

As Yukon prepares for a territorial election, the president of the Yukon Building Trades Council says he’s been talking with the political parties about policies to improve skilled trades training.

Jeff Sloychuk says the Yukon needs to recruit more high school shop teachers, better equip high schools, support more community-based training programs – in partnership with industry, unions and First Nations – and make training a condition of government contracts.

“We’ve been working with all the political parties just to try to ensure that this is an issue,” Sloychuk said.

“If housing is going to be an issue, then we need more qualified tradespeople.”

Yukoners go to the polls on Nov. 3, and the Liberal and Yukon Parties have both released plans to create more affordable housing in the territory.

The NDP, meanwhile, has stated its support for affordable housing as part of its pledge to battle income inequality.

Sloychuk said high schools want to embrace trade programs, but there’s a dearth of shop teachers, and “the equipment is horrible.”

“Stuff has to be locked out because it’s so old,” he said.

Students leaving territory for training

Yukon University is doing the best it can with the resources it has, he added, but students are having to leave the territory for training.

“A Ukrainian was sent to Red Deer to do his first year of electrician training because Yukon University didn’t offer what he needed,” he said.

The territory, he said, needs a training system led by industry, unions and First Nations and experiential learning programs that also benefit communities.

“So that might mean, like, a tiny homes project where you’re doing school in the morning and you’re building in the afternoon,” he said.

The department head in the School of Trades, Technology and Mining at Yukon University said students at the school have done tiny home projects multiple times in collaboration with First Nations.

But Jeff Wolosewich said specific projects don’t always align perfectly with what students need to learn and the order in which they need to learn it.

“You’ve got to make sure the students are at the heart of all your decision making,” he said.

Yukon University offers trades training in carpentry, electrical, welding, and heavy equipment mechanics. And the courses are always full and waitlisted, Wolosewich said.

But Sloychuk said there’s a disconnect between what the post-secondary training offers in Yukon and what industry requires.

And he called for what he described as more creative approaches.

Where the parties stand

He also said the Yukon government isn’t doing enough to create training opportunities and said it should require government contractors to offer apprenticeships.

CBC reached out to the three political parties to ask for their response to Sloychuk’s calls for action.

The Yukon Party said it recognizes the need to do more work to promote trades and to ensure that Yukoners can build the infrastructure the territory needs.

“The Yukon Party will be releasing key initiatives to enhance our trades training in the Yukon as part of our announcements in the coming days,” Yukon Party campaign media director Tim Kucharuk said in an email.

A spokesperson for the Liberal Party said in a statement emailed to CBC that the previous Liberal government encouraged local hiring, and the party is open to stronger measures, such as requiring or incentivizing government contractors to support apprenticeships and local training.

The previous government expanded trades seats at Yukon University, improved training infrastructure, and launched initiatives like the Skills for Success Strategy to improve job readiness, it said. But it added, “we know more is needed.”

“If re-elected, we are committed to strengthening partnerships with First Nations, unions and industry to train and retain a made-in-Yukon workforce that’s ready to meet the challenges ahead,” the email stated.

In addition, the statement touted the Liberals’ election promise to create a forgivable loan program for students who learn in-demand trades, which would be identified in partnership with industry.

Yukon NDP Leader Kate White, herself a journeyperson baker, according to the NDP website, told CBC in an interview that the government can require contractors to hire and train local people as a condition of doing business with it.

“That announcement is coming soon in a much more filed out way, and I’ll be excited to make it,” she said.

“But I will tell people that there is a plan on how to make sure big capital projects benefit Yukoners.”

White called training and education “a big broad topic” and said that, as a tradesperson, she knows “where the system lacks.”

She said she liked Sloychuk’s proposal for community-based programs led by industry, unions and First Nations and would facilitate those programs if elected by listening and asking for advice from people who have more expertise and experience with them.

“It’s asking what they need and then it’s being willing to work with them to achieve it,” she said.

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