Local 1 Saskatchewan Launches Pre-Apprenticeship Training Course

Local 1 Saskatchewan President Clarence Medernach knew that in order to expand the masonry industry in the province, which will create work opportunities for Local 1 members, efforts to recruit apprentices would need to be stepped up. Those efforts have included seeking out the skills of the First Nations/Aboriginal people of Saskatchewan, who comprise about 50 percent of the population. Medernach’s groundbreaking initiatives in this area have taken over two years to develop, “but the work and determination have definitely been worth it,” he says.

In partnership with the First Nations Employment Centre and with the support of provincial masonry contractors, Local 1 took a chapter from IMI’s successful approach to training and designed a “Pre-Apprenticeship Training Course” that will be delivered through the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST) – Wascana Campus. The 14-week course consists of safety training, cultural awareness training, the first term apprentice curriculum, and roughly five weeks of hands-on craft training. The course will begin in early 2005.

“This project helps address the province’s critical lack of masonry apprentices and journeypersons,” says Medernach, and will also help to increase the representation of the First Nations/Aboriginal sector in the building trades.

Medernach is also pleased that the project is in line with the recommendations of the Millennium Morning Project report with respect to reaching out to under or non-represented pools of workers, and hopes that the training will serve as a template for pre-trades training in the masonry industry across Canada.

Local 1 signatory contractors have committed to taking the graduates on as apprentices once work commences in the spring.