Training
The Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) is required to set up and manage an apprentice and training system that enables the construction industry to have a sufficient quantity of high-quality skilled workers to meet its needs.
The CCQ meets this commitment primarily by four means:
Encouraging the development of a new generation of skilled workers;
Encouraging continuous training by the industry’s workers;
Maintaining, and improving, mechanisms that respond to the specific training needs of workers.
The training system has been developed jointly with the partners in the industry, the union associations and employer associations, working together within a decision-making and advisory structure composed of the Board of Directors, the Committee on Vocational Training in the Construction Industry, 27 vocational subcommittees, and 9 regional subcommittees.
This structure also contributes to the development and implementation of educational programs and provides support to school boards that manage training centres devoted to the construction industry. In addition, the CCQ manages and monitors six agreements concluded with the Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport du Québec (MELS) and the school system.
For more than 15 years, the construction industry has had training funds for the residential, industrial, civil engineering and roadwork, and institutional and commercial sectors. Thanks to employer contributions, these funds now contain a total of more than $150 million and, among other things, assume all direct and indirect costs (for room and board, travel, and/or hours paid into the insurance reserve), thus creating an additional incentive for construction workers to engage in upgrading.
This approach seems to be bearing fruit, since, year after year, the number of individuals trained has grown constantly and the sums invested by the training funds has been maintained. In 2006, for example, 15,312 workers took part in 1,363 upgrading groups trained throughout Québec, for an investment of $24.6 million. In 2007, 17,234 workers took part in 1,515 groups, for an investment of $26.5 million. In 2008, the number of workers involved in upgrading exploded to above 19,000 participants, distributed among almost 1,800 groups, requiring an investment of $26 million.