Tories, looking to Germany, keen to do more on apprenticeship file

OTTAWA – The Tories are looking to do more on apprenticeships.

Employment Minister Jason Kenney frequently lauds Germany as a nation that gets it right in terms of training workers via apprenticeship partnerships among government, schools and businesses.

The minister even took to Twitter today, a week before the federal budget is to be tabled, to invite his provincial counterparts to travel to Germany with him to study the country’s “skills training model.”

The federal government has recently stepped up its efforts on a Canadian-style apprenticeship system.

The Atlantic provinces and Ottawa announced changes in the Maritimes’ local apprentice certification system so that apprentices from Atlantic Canada are able to work and train with greater ease.

Experts, however, say that while it’s possible the Tories might pour more money into apprenticeship initiatives in next week’s budget, they predict any push to duplicate the German model would be bound for failure in Canada.

Critics say the German education system has been built around the apprenticeship program for 150 years, something that would be impossible to achieve in Canada.