December 3, 2008

Trades Training

BC Auditor General’s report finds fault with Industrial Training Authority

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

Changes in how the Industry Training Authority (ITA) in B.C. is governed led to a reduction in the level of apprenticeships and trades training at a time when the construction industry was booming.

The Auditor General of B.C. released a report that concluded that the ITA has not been doing a very good job leading and managing the trades training system.

“The Auditor General clearly identified the many reasons why in the midst of an unprecedented BC construction boom, our industry actually had lower apprenticeship and Red Seal trades certificate completions,” said Wayne Peppard, BC Building Trades Council (BCYT) executive director.

“Auditor-General John Doyle found a litany of problems that still have not been addressed by government – and must be fixed on an urgent basis.”

The ITA is a crown corporation that was established in 2004 to create an industry-led system and provide flexible and accessible trades training programs.

“While the provincial government and the ITA have established a new model for trades training, the ITA has not provided sufficient guidance and direction to its partners and stakeholders to put this model into practice,” said Doyle in the report.

“When assuming responsibility for leading the trades training system, the ITA did not sufficiently consult or collaborate with its stakeholders in developing its plans and strategies.”

The auditor said this is a large omission given the significance of the changes being introduced and the number of stakeholders involved, but steps are being taken to improve things.

“The ITA is making efforts to improve communication and co-ordination, but a number of areas need more attention,” said Doyle.

“For instance, the roles and responsibilities of industry training organizations need clarification and a comprehensive quality assurance program for training programs is needed. ITA also needs better information to support planning and funding decisions and improve its performance reporting.”

The CEO of the ITA said the report is accurate, but the audit focused on process and did not look at performance.

“A performance audit focuses on outcomes, while the process audit looks at how you are doing at what you are doing,” said Kevin Evans, ITA CEO.

“We were focused on outcomes. If in the process of achieving these outcomes we could have done better, we accept the criticism.”

For example, the ITA reports that the number of registered participants in the training system in B.C. increased by more than 165 per cent, from 14,500 in 2004 to close to 40,000 today.

The ITA’s youth programs have increased the participation of high school students in skilled trades training by more than 500 per cent and the number of employers sponsoring apprentices is up by more than 55 per cent.

The ITA has also added 7,000 training seats in the last three years, which has resulted in a reduction of waiting lists.

However, critics of the ITA argue that inadequacies in the trades training system led to a drop in the number of completed apprenticeships at a time when the number of construction workers was increasing rapidly.

“It has taken till 2007-08 to finally exceed 2000 levels – a completely unacceptable situation that has seriously hurt our construction industry to this day,” said Peppard.

He said that the building trades have complained for years about the problems with the ITA.

Peppard added that the decline in apprenticeship completion represents six lost years that will require the immediate consultation and involvement of all stakeholders to catch up.

In response, Evans said the real cause of the fall in completions was significant change in the trades training system.

The Provincial Apprenticeship Board, which governed the training system until 1997, was replaced with the Industry Training and Apprenticeship Commission (ITAC). The government eliminated ITAC in 2002 and for the next two years, the Ministry of Advanced Education managed the trades training system.

“ITAC was universally recognized as being dysfunctional because everyone on the board had a veto,” said Evans.

“The only way to fix it was to scrap it. As the ITA builds up from ground zero, we will exceed by far anything ITAC was doing.”

According to Evans, the previous CEO came in with a mandate to change things quickly. He maintained that this accounted for some of the lack of consultation identified in the auditor’s report.

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