BRANTFORD, Ont. (April 20, 2004) — A group of trucking, driver trainers, and insurance stakeholders is pressing the government to include truck driving as one of Ontario’s 144 apprenticed trades.

The Brantford Expositor reports that the drive to make trucking a skilled trade — led in part by driver trainer Kim Richardson of KRTS in Caledonia, Ont. and Clark Wilson, who works in employment services in Simcoe at the government-sponsored Web site apprenticesearch.com — has reached the province’s apprenticeship board.

The two have approached the Ministry of Education and Training about establishing a formal “finishing program” for graduates from Ontario’s 300 to 350 trucking schools, helping them gain experience behind the wheel before they’re licensed to drive. Richardson already has conducted similar pilot projects on his own, including Next Gen, a program that partners KRTS graduates with experienced “driver finishers” from trucking carriers for a month before being hired.

Richardson says Ontario should follow the lead of Britain and the U.S. in establishing a provincial apprentice program, which he says will help lure high-school graduates that opt out of College or University.

Wilson says an apprenticeship program could be established within two years, but it’s now in the hands of the trucking industry to work with the apprenticeship board to design such a program.

Recently, an Ontario Chamber of Commerce study warned that the province is on the verge of a massive labour shortage. The survey on skilled trades released by the OCC says that 52 per cent of trades people are expected to retire within the next 15 years, with 41 per cent of survey respondents indicating they will face a labour shortage in their industry within the next five years.

— with files from the Brantford Expositor