New Bricklaying Program at NBCC Hopes to Attract More Young People to the Trade
The members of New Brunswick’s masonry industry says the province needs more young bricklayers to replace those near retirement, and the hope is a revamped program from the New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) will help with just that.
NBCC announced last May that it would suspend its bricklayer program for 2017 due to lack of enrollment. But after working with members of the industry, the college will be relaunching the program in January at its Woodstock campus with some major improvements.
“Our enrollments had been declining over several years and so the decision was made that it just wasn’t feasible to keep running [the program],” says Kirby Rushton, department head of trades, IT, business and social sciences at NBCC Woodstock. “We had four graduates last year. We had seen that steady decline and we knew that a decision had to be made so it was suspended.
“We knew that New Brunswick needs a bricklaying program. We’ve got a good relationship with our industry partners. We know that they really wanted it and the need was there as far as jobs. It was just a matter of getting really in touch with our industry partners and together working on how can we do this better? How can we change it up? How can we adjust things to make it more accessible and to be able to bring in more students?”
The new pre-employment program will be 23 weeks long (January 8 to June 15, 2018), as opposed to the 40 weeks of the previous program. Tuition for the program will also be lower than the previous program at $2,484. Rushton says the new format will not only be enticing for students just out of high school, but for those already working in the construction industry looking to advance their skills.
“The current 40-week that we had up until this year, it had all the quality that industry wanted,” says Rushton. “But the program length made it a barrier to recruitment. Because for example, anybody that was already in the construction field to try to take time out of work to come to school for 40 weeks was very difficult. For the student to be off work that long, but also for our industry partners that were reliant on these workers, we chose to modify the timing to line it up better with the off-season for a bricklayer.”
Rushton said it’s hard to pinpoint why young people have been losing interest in the trade, but he says it could be due to a few different factors, including many students are not exposed to what the trades have to offer.
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“I think maybe some of our young people coming out of high school are just not quite aware that the opportunity is there, that we’re in need of bricklayers,” he says. “Perhaps they need a little more education on what a bricklayer does and the opportunities that are out there for a good bricklayer.”
Gerald Reinders, president and treasurer of BAC Local 18, the union that covers bricklayers in New Brunswick, agrees that young people are not getting enough exposure to the trades in high school.
“We just find the high schools are not talking to the kids enough about going into the building trades as a whole, including bricklaying, plumbers, electricians, carpenters,” say Reinders. “The young kids just kind of told to go to university and not take a trade. We just find the guidance counselors at the high school level aren’t really getting the message out. There’s a good living to be made in the trades.”
After someone completes the NBCC program, they are then able to challenge their first block. From there, once they are accepted by a unionized company as an apprentice, they start making 65 percent of a journeyman’s wage, which works out to be more than $20 an hour. As they successfully complete their blocks and work more hours, that pay continues to rise.
Like many trades in New Brunswick, bricklaying is facing a skills shortage in coming years as more workers get older and retire. According to BuildForce, by 2026 the province will see around 7,600 retirements, but only around 5,200 new people entering the workforce. Reinder says the union is already experiencing the shortage.
“Especially the last few years, there’s actually been a shortage and that’s why we’ve pushed so hard to make sure that the course in Woodstock went again this year,” he says. “We didn’t want that gap for another year, because we can use all the apprentices.”
The need to recruit young bricklayers is something Ashley Bent, a 2014 bricklayer graduate, witnesses every day on the job. She says besides another man in his 20’s she works with, all the other bricklayers are more than 50. Though she believes the revamped NBCC program will help get more people into the trade, she says the industry needs to play its part by giving these new, young workers a chance to learn from the older workers before they leave.
“They are not taking the opportunity to save the skills set that those old people have, taking the opportunity to transfer [those skills] to the younger people,” says Bent. “Their time needs to be provided.”
Bent was a red seal carpenter before she went into bricklaying. She said part what attracted her to the industry was her love of designing the overall look of a building.
“With carpentry, I really liked doing the exterior of the house, so this just expands that, because I like brickwork a lot. I just like the look of it and the design. I just thought it would expand on my skill set.”
Though bricklaying is a physical and labour intensive job, it’s also creative and entails intricate skill.
“If you like building and you like to make things look well and you take some pride in your work and you’re creative, I think bricklaying is definitely the right choice,” she says.
Rushton says NBCC has been visiting high schools to help get the word out to prospective students about the need for bricklayers and the opportunities a career in the trade offers.
“I certainly think that we’re making a very conscious effort of ensuring that we get the message out. It’s not only us too, but it’s our industry partners,” says Rushton. ”They’ve been very supportive. They really appreciate that program that we offer and they’re out there getting the message out as well. We’ve also talked to the employment offices and got our information and pamphlets with them.”