Skilled trades: A road map to happiness?
Anew survey last week showed young Canadians were among the least happy group of people in the country and also one of the most discontented in the developed world.
According to the World Happiness Report, Canadians under the age of 30 also experienced a substantial drop in “life satisfaction,” ranking 58th in the world on the happiness index for people in their age category.
It’s not hard to understand why young Canadians aren’t jumping for joy these days.
For one, many of them have abandoned the hope of one day owning their own home.
According to a Statistics Canada report published in March, overheated housing prices and skyrocketing rental costs are “casting a shadow over the home ownership dream for many households — and, in particular, for young families.”
But the fading dream of home ownership is not the only reason young Canadians are gloomy nowadays: they’re also having difficulty finding well-paying jobs. Many of them are college or university graduates who thought a degree was the ticket to a lucrative career.
Pursuing a trade apprenticeship, however, may have been the better option for some of these students.
A number of trades pay higher-than-average salaries — especially for young people just starting out in their careers.
According to Glassdoor, one of the world’s largest job and recruiting sites, the average salary for an electrician in Canada is more than $70,000, similar to an elevator mechanic or heavy-duty equipment technician. Welders, plumbers, millwrights and steamfitters tend to make as much or more on average.
Consider the other advantages to learning a skilled trade.
The average debt incurred by students who pursue a college or university degree has been steadily climbing for the past two decades, according to a Statistics Canada report published in March.
But because tuition costs for trade school are significantly lower than college or university, students typically shoulder little or no student debt after graduating and find a job much more quickly, according to the Finishing Trades Institute of Ontario.
So given all of the financial benefits, it’s not surprising that enrolment in skilled trades programs is booming.
A Statistics Canada report released last December showed that more than 80,000 Canadians registered in a skilled trades apprenticeship program in 2022, the highest number of new registrations since 2014.
A skilled trade was my road to success in life: it gave me the chance to open my own business and I was able to build that business into a successful multinational, Magna International Inc., with operations throughout the world and more than $40 billion in annual sales.
When I was chairman of Magna, a lot of bankers, lawyers and automotive executives came through the doors of our head office in fancy suits, briefcases in hand. But the visitors who came in wearing blue overalls — Magna’s factory managers and assistant managers — often made far more in annual income than the “suits” who showed up for business meetings or worked in the head office.
Beyond providing wellpaying and fulfilling careers for many young Canadians, technically skilled trades are needed for the economy to function.
Tradespeople and other skilled technicians build homes, roads and cars; they grow and cook our food; they repair our appliances and they keep electricity and water running inside our schools, factories and offices.
A Canadian Federation of Independent Business report from last November noted the many harms caused by a shortage of skilled workers — everything from rising housing costs to lost business opportunities and stalled growth.
It’s why I believe students should be required, in their final two years of high school, to be exposed to one or more technical trades at businesses outside their schools.
Ideally, students would gain hands-on training in four different trades over two years in a wide range of skilled trades such as toolmaking, bricklaying, hairstyling, carpentry and the culinary arts.
This would take place at factories, auto repair shops, hair salons and restaurants, giving students real-world experience while allowing them to discover what they are good at doing.
Skilled trades training for young Canadians would give Canada the skilled workforce it needs to grow our economy — and it will give young Canadians the means to earn a good income and enjoy a higher standard of living.