Aug. 7, 2019 – The Canadian Council of Directors of Apprenticeship (CCDA), a voluntary intergovernmental partnership, has reached consensus on the harmonization of 32 Red Seal trades, including electricians, with new recommendations set to be implemented by September 2020.

Since 2015, CCDA has been working with a variety of industry stakeholders to harmonize its apprenticeship training initiative, substantively aligning trades across jurisdictions on the basis of name, total training hours (on-the-job and in-class), number of training levels and sequencing of technical training content. The goal at the time of the initiative’s launch was to harmonize training for 30 trades, covering 90% of registered apprentices in participating jurisdictions, by 2020.

In 2017, during the initiative’s second phase, training for both construction electricians (pictured) and industrial electricians was harmonized with 7,200 hours and four levels. In next year’s fifth phase, training for powerline technicians will also be harmonized, with the same number of hours and levels.

For further details on the sequencing of training and your province or territory’s implementation plan, contact your apprenticeship authority.

CCDA will continue to harmonize the remaining Red Seal trades as their occupational standards are developed, but it will also review those with a harmonized curriculum to ensure the training content remains current and continues to meet industry needs.