You're convinced that an apprenticeship program is a great way to help your plant meet its labour requirements when your older employees start looking over Florida retirement brochures. You realize that planning now will help your company continue to serve its customers' needs over the next five to 10 years. But what now?

The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum-Forum canadien sur l'apprentissage (CAF-FCA) is a federal government organization that promotes apprenticeship as an effective way to develop a skilled labour force. We asked Keith Lancastle, executive director, CAF-FCA, for tips on how to find and retain the best and the brightest apprenticeship candidates in automation and manufacturing. Here's what he said:

1 Knock out misconceptions about skilled trades. "We must begin by changing the way people, and in particular young people, perceive the skilled trades," Lancastle says. Skilled trades have not been considered a first-choice career option in young people's minds. As a result, we are not attracting the best and the brightest, but we should be. Talk to youth and show them that a career as a machine builder, plant manager or manufacturing technician has its rewards. "The challenge is getting people to shift attitudes on this, so that trades are seen as an acceptable career for the best and the brightest," he says.

2 Ensure your company is an employer of choice. A company's reputation will impact its ability to attract smart and talented young people. As skilled labour becomes scarcer over the next five to 10 years, competition for quality workers will become tougher, so it's important to make sure that yours is a company that a young person would find appealing. Also, it's important to make sure that advancement opportunities are available and visible to new hires to help retain the talent you've hired, Lancastle says. "As much as we tell employers that apprenticeships are a good long-term solution to their labour requirements, employees want to know that when they are investing their time in an apprenticeship, they, too, have long-term opportunities at the company from an advancement and training perspective."

3 Make contacts at the provincial ministry responsible for apprenticeship in your region. Before embarking on an apprenticeship program, employers should understand the prerequisites for being an apprentice in each province. The apprenticeship branch at your provincial/territorial ministry that deals with education, training and labour can provide this information. For a list of ministries and departments, visit www.apprenticetrades.ca.

4 Reach out to some of the high schools and community colleges to identify who the bright students are. Teachers are a great resource when you're searching for bright and talented young people who would make good employees, says Lancastle. Call your local school and ask the shop teacher who the best students in his or her class are. Programs such as the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP) can also help you locate young talent. Call I-888-JOBGROW for more information about OYAP.

5 Network, network, network. Finally, ask your own internal network of employees, relatives and friends if they know someone who would make a great apprentice. -Nancy Kuyumcu

CAF-FCA is working on a tool kit for employers interested in getting involved in apprenticeship. Look out for the tool kit when it becomes available by visiting www.careersintrades.ca and www.apprenticetrades.ca.

The greatest obstacle facing global manufacturing growth is a lack of skilled workers who can implement new technologies, according to manufacturing advocate Leo Reddy, chief executive officer and founder, National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM).

In a keynote address at the recent Rockwell Automation Allen-Bradley Automation Fair ཀ, Reddy shared how his organization is implementing workforce certification programs based on industry-led standards. Reddy said that certification, similar to those in automotive repair and other industries, stimulates worker potential, and makes it easier for companies to deal with technology changes.

Reddy shared his findings of a NACFAM study based on interviews with more than 50 senior manufacturing executives. The study identified seven growing technology groups that will advance manufacturing over the next 15 years. The promise of these new technologies collides with the skill level of many of today's manufacturing workers, Reddy said. More than 80 percent of manufacturers report a lack of qualified workers, according to Reddy.

"The major barrier to the realization of these technologies is the shortage of engineers and technicians needed to research, design, develop and use them," Reddy said. "If we rely on the traditional education and training systems to fill this void, the payoff for consumers, businesses and governments will be delayed for many years." -N.K.

While other provinces are scrambling to attract youth to the skilled trades to combat the looming skilled labour shortage, Alberta is brimming with industrial talent.

According to Gary Maier, engineering technology professor, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), Alberta's booming primary industries-particularly the oil and gas sector-are attracting many of the province's youth and lots of tradespeople from other parts of the country who want to cash in on the big paycheques available to ticketed workers.

"Plus, the whole idea of a tradesperson has changed over the years," Maier says, explaining that people no longer see a career in manufacturing as a "grease-under-the-fingernail" type of job. "The demands with automation and the requirements in terms of sciences and maths are significantly higher and employers are looking for people that have good thinking skills and are willing to learn," he says.

Another growing trend in the province, Maier says, is the idea of multi-skilled workers. As more companies adopt lean manufacturing principles, and as the workforce ages, multi-skilling-or training an employee to do a variety of related tasks so that he or she becomes a "jack of all trades"-is taking off. While multi-skilled workers benefit companies by making those workers more useful around a plant, it is often at the expense of plant maintenance personnel, he adds.

A version of this article first appeared in Plant Engineering and Maintenance (PEM) magazine. It has been edited and reprinted here with permission.