By Richard Lyall
RESCON
They say the best time to fix a problem is before it breaks. That is why it is so critical for Canada to take a good long look at its apprenticeship system and find new ways of training recruits.
Despite billions of dollars in public investment, uptake of training programs remains too low in many areas and the number of workers who complete training and receiving certification is on the decline.
Canada’s apprenticeship completion rate has been stuck at roughly 20 per cent of registrations since 2013, despite strong demand for skilled labour. Skill shortages are estimated to have caused GDP to be $2.6 billion lower in 2024 alone, and to have contributed about seven per cent of our nation’s growing labour productivity gap with the U.S. since 2014.
The federal government in 2026 projected excess demand of more than 1.4 million skilled trades workers versus supply by 2033. With approximately 700,000 skilled trades workers across Canada expected to retire by 2028, the situation is likely going to get worse before it gets better. It’s a knowledge transfer challenge the training pipeline was just not designed to absorb.
An independent report prepared for RESCON and co-authored by experts concluded that the nation’s apprenticeship crisis stems from flawed system design based on incorrect economic assumptions about human behaviour, highlighting barriers such as choice overload, loss aversion, present bias, social norms and financial precarity that hinder apprenticeship completion.
The report, Are We Ready to Build Canada? A Behavioural Analysis of Canada’s Construction Talent Pipeline and Skills Training Policy, was authored by Nathaniel Barr, professor of creativity and senior advisor, innovation at Sheridan College; Michael McNamara, professor of creativity and director of the Community Ideas Factory at Sheridan; and James K. Stewart, economist and a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute.
The authors recommend systemic redesign, using behavioural science and embedding behavioral insights and rigorous testing of solutions to better facilitate apprenticeship success and address workforce shortages.
In other words, we need a new approach to help boost apprenticeship completion rates. We must look beyond traditional approaches and redesign the system because it’s clearly not working.
Behavioural science could be applied to significantly boost apprenticeship recruitment and completion rates in the skilled construction trades. By embracing behavioural science, we can achieve better training outcomes and improve how youth view the skilled construction trades.
Behavioural science is the study of cognitive constraints, social pressures and structural frictions that shape human decisions. The premise is that decisions are shaped by limits of time, attention, cognitive energy and available information.
Authors of the report were meticulous in examining the apprenticeship journey through a behavioural lens to identify barriers to recruitment, challenges within training and issues affecting retention. They concluded that policy and program design must better reflect the human factors influencing training outcomes in the years ahead.
Improved outcomes and a more skilled workforce are critical to the success of Canada’s evolving economic landscape – shaped by tariffs and other adverse U.S. policy shifts, rapid advances in artificial intelligence and long-standing productivity challenges.
Billons of dollars have been spent on apprenticeship training and, while increased funding is important, it has not solved the problem. The bigger problem is the rate at which individuals enter and complete their apprenticeship training. Low completion rates cannot be overlooked.
We must overhaul the apprentice training system from one that merely provides opportunities to one that actively facilitates meaningful usage and completion. The missing ingredient is behavioural science as it provides an understanding of why people behave as they do.
Canadian training policy has relied on the same subsidies, tax credits, and awareness campaigns. But it’s not working. Applying behavioural science to the construction talent pipeline makes sense.
With a skilled trades shortage looming over the construction industry, there is no time to waste. We must act now.
Richard Lyall is president of the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON). He has represented the building industry in Ontario since 1991. Contact him at media@rescon.com.
