To ‘build, baby, build,’ this country is going to need a whole lot more shop teachers

To meet the federal government’s promise to “build, baby, build,” the country is going to need a whole lot more skilled trades workers. But a shortage of shop class teachers in Canadian high schools might make them hard to find. 

“We have a massive shortage of trained teachers,” said Andy Strothotte, who has been a shop teacher for 31 years and is president of the British Columbia Technology Education Teachers Association. His counterparts in other parts of the country report the same.

About 700,000 skilled trades workers are set to retire between 2019 and 2028, according to federal government numbers, and shop classes are a key tool for getting students interested in pursuing those careers.

The number of new tradespeople needed may even be higher than that, given the Liberal government’s promise to build 500,000 homes per year, and to undertake various — yet unspecified — “nation-building” infrastructure projects.  

There’s a shortage of all teachers in British Columbia, but Strothotte told Cost of Living that it’s particularly challenging to recruit people to teach woodworking, metal work or other tech classes.

Those jobs are so specialized — plus, a teacher’s starting salary is less than people typically make in the trades.

“We’re working on trying to get salary equality recognized, so that people who have a trades background who have this Red Seal, have years of experience, get a bump up on the pay scale,” said Strothotte, who teaches at Westview Secondary School in Maple Ridge, B.C.

High cost to retrain as a teacher

Even worse, prospective shop teachers give up those good salaries to take on several years of school expenses. 

In B.C., the main pathway to becoming a tech-ed teacher is to spend two years at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) doing a technology education teaching diploma, followed by one year at the University of British Columbia in general teaching education. 

“That’s a huge hit for a family to take, to be three years out of the industry, out of work,” said Strothotte.

The training used to take just two years if you already had trades experience. There are some lobbying efforts underway to try to reinstate that accelerated program, he says. 

Ontario also has a tech education teacher shortage, in part because what used to be a one-year teacher’s college program became two years in 2015, says Christine German, executive director of the Ontario Council for Technology Education.

“This two-year teacher’s college is really creating a barrier for all teachers, but also us,” said German. 

Though some of the tech education teacher training programs are 16 months, with online components to add flexibility, candidates are still paying double the tuition they used to, and often incurring travel costs as well, she says.

Documents obtained by the Canadian Press in April revealed that Ontario is considering shortening the teacher training to address the problem of plummeting admissions to teacher’s colleges.

Cost of Living reached out to every provincial and territorial government, asking for the number of vacant tech education positions and plans to address the problem. Among the eight that responded by publication time, most said they do not tabulate the number of vacancies, and that individual boards would have that data. But Nunavut, B.C., Alberta, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador all pointed to various initiatives to recruit and retain teachers, including tech educators.  

Strothotte says issues like burn-out, injury or working conditions might bring some tradespeople into tech ed. 

“Or they’re just tired of lying under a diesel cat at minus 60 degrees in the tundra, and they’d rather be working in a heated shop with students and sharing their passion with them,” he said.

Maryke Simmonds worked in theatre for two decades, building props and sets, but went back to school at BCIT to become a shop teacher. She graduated last August, along with 21 others.

“At school, they told us that Surrey [School District] could take all of us — right away after graduation — and still need more shop teachers.”

That doesn’t surprise Strothotte.

B.C. currently has around 55 open jobs for shop teachers and if those don’t get filled, classes will get cancelled, he said. Sometimes that means the shops themselves will get shuttered — in some cases, never to reopen again, he says.

WATCH | This college event introduced female high school students to the trades:

‘Jill of All Trades’ introduces female high school students to the skilled trades

St. Clair College’s second annual Jill of All Trades event introduced 100 female high school students to the working world of skilled trades. CBC”s Dalson Chen spoke with students Abigail Collins and Cassidy Young, as well as Lido Zuccato, who chairs the college’s School of Skilled Trades.

Facilities and materials often in short supply

That’s another limitation for provinces looking to bolster their ranks of tradespeople — not every high school has a shop, and some that once did have been converted to other kinds of classrooms when interest in and funding for tech education classes waned.

In Ontario, the provincial government made it mandatory for every student to take at least one tech education credit as of the 2024-25 school year.

“This is our government saying it’s really important for our students to explore technological education — skilled trades and technology — as early as they possibly can because it’s a fantastic thing for students, [and] very, very needed in our country,” said German.

Stotthotte says the funding for materials hasn’t “hasn’t really changed” in the last 15 years. He canvasses local businesses for donations of scraps, or jumps in his pickup when he sees listings on Facebook for free plywood or other supplies.

In Calgary, there’s a new partnership called Adopt-a-Shop between high schools and the Calgary Construction Association, in which home builders, plumbing companies and others donate money, materials and expertise.

That kind of initiative supports students like Tayah Kilb, who just finished Grade 11 at Central Memorial High School in Calgary, to explore the possibility of a career in the trades.

Kilb says she had never considered it before she took a woodworking class this year, first making a table for her family room, then some custom furniture for her bedroom.

“I have a completely pink room and I couldn’t find any bedside table that matched it … so I just made one in construction and painted it pink.”

The experience has her set her sights on working in construction as a framer.

“And I’ll be loaded, compared to everyone else.”