Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to reference the statement made by the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment yesterday in regard to apprenticeship and occupational certification and the review that was done. I’m very pleased to hear that a review was done. From my understanding of people who are involved in apprenticeship certification, it was a review that was well overdue.
The Minister stated yesterday that some of the changes that have been implemented are “streamlining activities, making the system more efficient for employers and trades people. There is evidence of results, with the number of registered apprentices climbing by almost 25 per cent…from about 320 for the past several years to just over 400 as of September 1, 2008.”
I’d like to ask the Minister: I understand that we run apprenticeship programs at Aurora College in Fort Smith. I’d like to know what apprenticeship programs are offered at that college.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mr. Speaker, we do offer a variety of apprenticeship programs at Aurora College. I can provide the detailed lists of all the different apprenticeship and trades programs we do offer. I can certainly commit to the Member to provide that detailed information. Mahsi.
Thank you, Minister. I don’t actually need a list of those programs, although it might be interesting to have a look at it.
I’m wondering if the Minister can advise on how thoroughly these programs are subscribed to. Basically, I’m wanting to know whether these programs are full all the time. If we have a listing of, say, 20 apprenticeship programs in Fort Smith, do they run all 20 every year? Do they run all 20 every semester? If we have 20 programs, how thoroughly are they subscribed to?
Mr. Speaker, those programs would vary depending on the type of interest in the program. Sometimes we continue to work with the industry where there’s a need. It depends on the industry’s needs. Then we see more students in the program. Most of the time we do have the trades programs to full capacity. But, again, it does vary, depending on certain programs and certain interest from the students and from the community.
It’s my understanding that it does happen that programs are scheduled and they are then cancelled. I wonder if the Minister could advise under what circumstances apprenticeship programs are cancelled.
Some of the programs have been cancelled in the past due to limited seating capacity. We do have certain criteria that we follow, where in order to cancel a program, there should be a certain number of students into the program. I can certainly provide to the Member that information on the criteria and the guidelines we use for these particular courses we offer.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I’d like to suggest that cancellation of scheduled programs has a huge impact on both the employer and the employee in this instance. We are concerned why we’re losing people to the South, and cancellation of apprenticeship programs is one possibility. I’ve heard of one instance where that’s happened. People plan their lives around scheduled programs, classes and courses, and when there’s a cancellation on short notice, it creates large problems for any number of people.
I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not there are any guidelines as to the amount of notice that is required for a scheduled program when it is cancelled, and if not, why not.
Mr. Speaker, we certainly don’t want to cancel programs unless we have to. At times we have to go that avenue, but at the same time we do, to the best of our ability, communicate to the students and the families, because we realize the impact that would have on the family and the student. We want to give at least advance notice if there’s going to be cancellation of a program. That will be part of the communication dialogue from our department with Aurora College and on to the students and the families. We do what we can to communicate with the students who will be impacted when there’s a cancellation. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
