Apprenticeship in international perspective : Perspective internationale sur l'apprentissage : comparaison avec l'Ontario

Both cases demonstrate that expansion can be achieved by carefully marketing apprenticeship and by introducing the model to new, emerging sectors of the economy, but that precautions must also be taken to ensure the quality of the placements being offered and thus also the value and transferability of the credentials earned. [...] The list continues to include the academically weaker nature of apprenticeship candidates in Canada, the low status of apprenticeship and the impact of salary interruption during training. [...] While the federal government is involved through Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) in certain elements of apprenticeship deemed to have national relevance, such as the establishment of the interprovincial Red Seal program, many of the key decisions, including the passing of legislation and the establishment of apprenticeable trades, are made at the provincial level. [...] The intervention of the Australian federal government in two key areas – the passing of national legislation and the creation of national competency standards for apprenticeship – may contain important lessons for Canada, where the lack of national legislation and of national competency standards in many occupation areas are identified as particular shortcomings of the apprenticeship system in the [...] This contrasts to the situation in England, where the lack of national legislation on apprenticeship and the lengthy list of credentials one can acquire have made both the value of an apprenticeship and the transferability of the credentials earned questionable.