I attended a meeting of the Greater Dufferin Homebuilders recently and couldn’t help but leave impressed with the speakers from our local educational community including the area high schools, Georgian College and Humber College.  These groups are doing a great job not only with their individual programs but also working together in making sure that our youth leave academia and head out into the workforce with skills that make them easily employable.

Through a provincial initiative our high schools are implementing a program called the Specialist High Skills Majors (SHSM). This program has grade 11 and 12 students take four sector specific courses, three or four courses in English or math, as well as earning two co-op credits within the specific sector being studied. The idea is to give students “learning activities contextualized to the sector.” In addition, students may also attain “reach ahead” experiences by earning credits at either Georgian or Humber in their field while still in high school. Local high schools currently offer SHSM in manufacturing and will be introducing a construction program this fall.

Georgian has expanded its curriculum with its recent move to its new location on Centennial Road that has seen them add a greatly expanded computer lab. In addition to the programs that it has historically offered, Georgian is also heavily involved in customized retraining programs to help the many laid-off workers in the manufacturing sector.  Georgian is also reaching back even further than high school to Grade 8 students with its popular Career Pathways program, which takes place each November at the Fairgrounds.  This program exposes students at an early age to many jobs and trades that they might not otherwise give thought to, as well as traditional careers.  This program has become so successful that it is now being modelled by other areas.

Humber began offering courses last fall at the Alder Street recreation centre in business management, business administration and police foundations programs. The college plans to add an ECE program this fall as it looks forward to moving into its new campus in the fall of 2010.

With all of these good things going on locally, with the obvious support of the province, to prepare youth for the workforce one can only wonder at what they are doing on the other hand. Despite announcements in the provincial budget for more retraining, our provincial government continues to put up roadblocks for those wanting to enter apprenticeship programs.  The problem is a restrictive ratio of journeymen to apprenticeships in many trades such as electricians of three to one.  This is despite the fact that most of the United States and the rest of Canada require a ratio of only one to one.  It’s a no-brainer really when one considers that a change to the policy would not require any provincial spending and would accelerate much of the great work that is already being done locally and around the province. It can only be the lack of aforementioned brains why this change isn’t being made.

Doug Harkness is a long-time member of the Orangeville community with a keen interest in local, provincial and federal politics.