John Bleasby
“Contractors who have children should be allow to employ them and train at a young age”
Canadian ContractorBureaucratic and regulatory obstacles to training one's own children causes friction with many tradespeople
John Bleasby’s recent article about The Lost Generation has resulted in several comments, some of which concern regulatory obstacles to training one’s own children in the family trade……
“There are 2 huge obstacles in Ontario to attracting young people to the trades, and/or construction work. One is …..excessive regulation and government control. Allowing agencies like OCOT to prevent a father from teaching his children the family trade, and preventing anyone from being a helper for a few months without being a signed-up apprentice have limited opportunities in all trades. Those that oppose this kind of government control over their lives (like me) have completely given up passing on their skills to the next generation.”
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A father teaching his children his trade is as old as……?
“Why is it that being in business for over 20 yrs the government feel that I’m not qualified to train young people as an apprentice? …The city passes my work on a continual basis, so if the city is happy with my understanding of building practices, why isn’t the federal government? I get to pay into their WSIB, and soon their College of Trades fees.”
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“I agree contractors who have children should be allow to employ them and train at a young age starting at 16 years of age without an apprenticeship, as colleges of trades only allows so many apprentices, and a contractor may have his compliment. I had my son at a young age working for me and he became a journey & now a teacher of the electrical trade.”
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“Tend to agree to a point here as well. I have taught all my kids how to use their hands and get things done. Now that they are into their 20’s I am starting to see the results of that. My oldest has always fixed his own car, just bought a house and is now renovating it. Realizing how much money he saves by doing it all himself. My youngest is in school for architecture and has an understanding of all the terms we use around the house now. Cool to watch them grow up.”
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” “Allowing agencies like the Ontario College of Trades to prevent a father from teaching his children the family trade…” Unless the walls have ears and the OCT has a spy in every home, I think that is a tad paranoid. Not to mention, it might be a mother teaching her children.”
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I’ll probably get hung out to dry on this one, but I started getting my two sons roofing with me at 12. (Not steady) I kept them away from the edge and taught them all about the trade. By the time they were 18 they were better roofers than most roofers twice their age, knew the value of hard work and had quality father son time. Today one has a successful roofing company and owns a couple of houses. The other is in construction, does well and has 3 houses too. I say keep the left-wing idealogues in their office cubicles and let the rest of us do what is natural, normal and healthy.
I taught all my children (2 sons 2 daughters) just like my Father trained me at a very young age (12-15) how to, My children mainly in the electrical trade but as well as the building trades as well, they all have a good basic knowledge of how to swing a hammer and turn a screwdriver, this has not hurt them in any way. Having my own company I have hired young people on a RAP program as well as young apprentices at the age of 16, its scary, a lot of these kids don’t have practical knowledge or construction common sense and I ask myself how can we change this? I don’t think changes come from over legislating by governments by disallowing young people from trying or by being taught at a young age. Schools use to teach shop and woodworking at a grade 7-9 level ages from 12-15. I think we should be putting more money in the budget for these kind of programs than buying more computer’s and computer labs.
Knowledge is power, why wouldn’t a parent teach there kids skills
My kids run compact heavy equipment on our farm, they understand business as much as 10yr old can, and I hope, by the time there deciding what careers to start in life, they can choose, or not choose, to continue there fathers career
It will be there choice,
I have a family friend, whos the same age as I am, his dad started with a pick up and wheel barrow,
They have a 40yr head start on the legacy, I would leave my kids
They live extremely comfortable, they own buildings, take winters off work, live is much easier when your net worth is 7 figures, in your early 20’s