The Skilled Trades and Apprenticeship Education Act came into force on July 20, 2022, replacing the Apprenticeship and Industry Training (AIT) Act. The AIT Board was decommissioned and the Alberta Board of Skilled Trades (ABST) was established. Raymond Massey was appointed as the new chair of the ABST. Ray has a long history of supporting apprenticeship education and guiding apprenticeship and trade policy in Alberta. AMBA congratulates and supports Ray in his new role.
ABST reached out to certified MBSE/Ironworkers and Industry stakeholders to participate as Subject Matter Experts in guiding new policy. AMBA board members, Greg Dellezay (Butler Manufacturing), Cody Bexson (Bexson Construction) and Colin Porte (Brytex Building Systems) were accepted as members of the Trades and Apprenticeship Community of Expertise (TACE). The following is an update of the recent TACE meetings that they attended:
Training:
The Apprenticeship Board will no longer enforce apprentices to continue with technical training. For example, an apprentice may continue as a 1st year MBSE for 10 years, receiving a lower wage. MBSE remains a compulsory trade and the same journeyperson to apprentice ratio will remain in effect.
Blue Book:
The physical blue book will be electronically replaced with a downloadable and printable card from Tradesecrets and will contain all the information required by compliance officers and employers. As the apprentice progresses, the information will be updated in the Apprentice’s account in Tradesecrets and an updated card should be downloaded and printed by the apprentice (https://tradesecrets.alberta.ca/).
Core Competence:
Core competence statements for the Ironworker Trade were reviewed and refined, but nothing significant changed.
Curriculum Guide:
The curriculum guide was reviewed and helped define a framework of educational goals and expectations for each training year. For example, understanding, performing and solving a task require progressively more skillset – course objectives, activities and assessments are designed to reflect expected performance for each term.
Competence Portfolio:
Competence Portfolios were developed for each course year (1st and 2nd) and each Ironworker designation (Reinforcing, MBSE, Structural/Ornamental). This is still being refined and more information will follow. AMBA will continue to update our members on any new developments to the MBSE/Ironworker trade. If you would like to be involved in guiding apprenticeship and trade training in Alberta and are interested in participating in TACE you can sign up through this link: https://surveys.eae.alberta.ca/novi/TakeSurveyPage.aspxs=4415c9d22bc9455aa6c1fa5d014e128e&tsid=c49a8090a9a64445b6bb78584cfd74a7&c=en-CA