Quebec cuts off the tap on paid construction training

The Legault government will turn off the tap next year to accelerated construction training courses paid $750 per week, which hardly surprises house builders, who were expecting the end of the program.

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“No surprise, the end of the program was planned. One thing is certain, we must continue to focus on a qualified workforce, this promotes retention and above all the quality of construction,” indicated to Journal Maxime Rodrigue, CEO of the Association of Construction and Housing Professionals of Quebec (APCHQ).

“For us, it mainly involves a work/study alternation approach. All industry players are in continuous action, including the government,” he added.

Fear for quality

THURSDAY, The Press reported that Quebec was going to put an end to accelerated training paid $750 per week.

“It is not envisaged that there will be other cohorts next year,” confirmed to the Montreal daily the Minister of Labor, Jean Boulet, even if he persists in saying that the program “is giving good results to this day”.

A year ago, The Journal indicated that construction students were afraid that the quality of work would deteriorate on our sites.

Like beneficiary attendants during the pandemic, Quebec had launched an offensive to train 4,000 to 5,000 construction workers with accelerated courses paid $25 per hour on average to attract aspiring workers.

Last October, The Journal revealed that barely a quarter of the students paid $750 per week to follow accelerated training in construction worked on construction sites.

Teachers also spoke to our Parliamentary Office to denounce the fact that it was not uncommon to see students showing up barely once or twice a week in the first months.

Highlights

Last April, The Journal also underlined that Quebec will never know if its flagship return-to-work training, which cost nearly $300 million, bore fruit or not. At the Quebec Public and Parapublic Service Union (SFPQ), we spoke of the administration of these programs internally as a real “open bar”.