Helmets to Hardhats helps members of Canadian Forces enter civilian workforce
Members of the Canadian Forces (CF) often have difficulty in transitioning into the private sector. Since May of 2012, the Helmets to Hardhats program has worked to bridge that divide between military and civilian careers.
“The program is focused on providing full-time members of the CF, Reservists or retired vets with an opportunity to have a great new career in the building/construction industry through one of the 65 affiliated trades,” said Brigadier-General (Retired) Greg Matte, the executive director of Helmets to Hardhats. “It will also provide them the necessary training, through an apprenticeship, to become a licensed journeyperson anywhere in Canada.”
The program is intended to assist anyone who has served honourably in the Canadian military to find work in any province or territory. “We already have over 800 military people that have registered with the program, and probably 25 per cent of those are retired military people,” Matte said. “Anyone that has been successfully accepted into the military, either in a Reserve unit or into the Regular force — even if it’s for one day — is eligible. The only people that are ineligible are those individuals who have been in the CF and had a dishonourable discharge.”
In order to make the transition from soldier to tradesperson, the program collaborates with provincial apprenticeship boards to seek recognition for some or all of the military qualifications and/or experience gained during a soldier’s military career. Those who don’t meet any of the prerequisites are still eligible, but can expect to undertake the full apprenticeship training. “I’ll use myself as an example: I was a fighter pilot, so the skills and experience that I had flying high-performance fighters won’t help me for a moment as a carpenter or as a welder,” said Matte. “In my case, I would probably be looking at doing a full apprenticeship, but the good news is that the program will still seek to find me the opportunity to fulfill this new career aspiration.
“However, there’s a quite a number of different trades out there that have a commonality with some of the background experiences that people would have in the military. As such, there is potential to reduce the apprenticeship, and we have a number of ways to go about that.”
Matte said that Helmets to Hardhats will help to address two challenges that employers must face: “The practical reason is that there’s a very high shortage of skilled workers in the building and construction industry in Canada at the moment, and the projection by a number of different authorities, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, is that this shortfall of skilled workers is going to be a problem probably for the next decade, if not the next two decades.”
Helmets to Hardhats provides one way to alleviate that problem. “There’s all kinds of different solutions that are being developed by industry and the government, including temporary foreign workers and changes to the immigration laws trying to attract skilled workers into Canada,” said Matte. “The strength of this program is that it provides a ‘made in Canada’ solution.
“As I tell the industry leaders, although we’re not expecting a great volume of people coming through this program, it will provide high-quality individuals — people that, when they commit to doing an apprenticeship, they will complete it. Furthermore, given their tendency towards continuous learning and development, they will be an excellent longterm investment … they will adapt, enhance their skills and likely grow into positions of increasing responsibility based on their leadership skills.”
Indeed, employers are perennially challenged to find good workers regardless of the economic climate. Matte said that veterans of Canada’s Armed Forces possess other remarkable qualities that employers will quickly value, “such as dedication, adaptability, resourcefulness, solid work ethic, teamwork, mission focus, inter-personal skills, multitasking and safety consciousness — those kinds of things.”
In the process, the program provides an invaluable service to military personnel in their transition to civilian life. “We’ve had the opportunity to speak with a lot of these vets and quite a number of them are having a hard time finding work, let alone finding a new career,” said Matte. “They find it quite challenging because most civilian companies do not understand the qualifications that they have in the military.”
Another challenge in making that transition is a cultural one. “People that have spent any time in the military have become accustomed to a certain culture,” Matte said. “It’s a community of likeminded people who trust one another and who rely on one another for support when they’re gone for great periods of time.
“When people leave the military, they carry that kind of culture and expectation with them, and the result of that is, quite often, they become quite vulnerable,” said Matte, which is why he appreciates the role of the 14 building and construction trade unions (AFL-CIO) who help sponsor Helmets to Hardhats. “What I’ve come to discover is that these unions actually have a very similar culture to the Canadian Forces: they look after one another and they look after the families of members that are in the unions, a ‘Brotherhood’ that is very similar to the ‘Brotherhood of War’ we see in the military.
“Overall, Helmets to Hardhats really is a win-win situation for the employers, the unions, for the people in the military and, I would say, it’s a win for Canada because, as most of these companies always tell me, ‘Yes, we’re looking at finding solutions both in Canada and beyond, but our first priority is trying to hire Canadians.’ That’s what I’m offering to them: a special cadre of Canadians that have served their country and put their life on the line for Canada. It really is a nice fit.”