The COVID-19 pandemic hit apprenticeship programs hard in 2020, and while construction trades were not immune to its effects, they weathered the storm better than most.

Statistics Canada released figures relating to apprenticeship registrations and completions in 2020 on December 6. The numbers show a drop in registrations of more than one-quarter, and a drop in certifications of nearly one-third. Both were the largest declines on record.

Data shows there were 55,455 new registrations in apprenticeship programs in 2020, down 28.5% (-22,119) from a year earlier, and 35,256 certifications, down 32.7% (-17,112).

Those numbers come as little surprise, given that at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March of last year, provinces and territories quickly implemented guidelines, restrictions and lockdowns that greatly impacted Canadians’ ability to register in apprenticeship programs or achieve their certifications.

Ontario among those most impacted

Not surprisingly, many provinces and territories reported their lowest numbers of new apprenticeship registrations and certifications in a generation. Alberta, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador hit their lowest levels ever.

The vast majority of the drop in new registrations and certifications occurred in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia. Ontario reported the largest drop in new registrations (-7,785, or -37.1%), followed by Quebec (-4,572, or -19.4%), Alberta (-3,927, or -33.8%) and British Columbia (-3,267, or -23.9%). All four provinces also reported similar declines in certifications, with Quebec posting the largest drop—down 5,313 (-27.9%) compared with 2019. 

All trades affected, some less than others

While COVID-19 restrictions affected programs in all major trade groups, not all were affected equally. The extent to which trades were considered essential or non-essential services varied from province to province, and therefore affected apprenticeship participation.

Statistics Canada mapped data pertaining to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) program into journeypersons’ workforce participation rate. It found that those working in non-essential businesses, or in those industries without the ability to work remotely, were most likely to receive the CERB. More than 70% of journeypersons in some sectors, such as hairstylists and early childhood educators, for example, received the CERB in 2020. 

Meanwhile, journeypersons working in sectors deemed essential, such as construction and utilities, were less likely to have received the CERB. Some essential trades had CERB rates of less than 20%—this was the case for agricultural equipment technicians (7%), powerline technicians (13%), and truck and transport mechanics (18%), for example.

Certification rates echoed these findings. Among the major trade groups, the largest percentage declines in certifications were for community and social service workers (-62.7%), hairstylists and estheticians (-48.1%), electronics and instrumentation (-45.3%), early childhood educators and assistants (-44.4%), and food services (-43.4%).

Conversely, landscape and horticulture technicians and specialists (-5.3%), exterior finishing (-16.7%), stationary engineers and power plant operators (-20.9%), and interior finishing (-23.2%) trades reported the smallest percentage year-over-year declines in certifications in 2020.

Apprentices in these trade groups, along with several other construction-related trade groups, were less likely to be delayed in receiving certification given the partial continuation of many construction-related trades throughout the pandemic, and Public Safety Canada listing energy and utilities as one of the 10 critical infrastructure sectors during the pandemic.

Statistics Canada also projects construction-related trade groups will see an increase in new registrations and certifications in the near future.

One of the consequences associated with the lockdowns and restrictions was a large increase in job vacancies in the trades. While job vacancies in all sectors were up in the second quarter of 2021, compared with before the pandemic in the first quarter of 2020, the largest increases in demand were in health care and social assistance (+37,770), retail trade (+33,995), accommodation and food services (+28,800), construction (+27,800), and manufacturing (+23,830). 

The loosening of COVID-19 restrictions, along with the increased demand for tradespeople, could result in significantly higher new apprenticeship registrations and certifications in 2021.