Post Preview

Canada’s skilled trades are facing a major workforce shift, but practical, hands-on training is helping close the gap. Discover how regulated career colleges are preparing job-ready graduates to keep Canada building strong.

Canada’s skilled trades workforce is under pressure, and the effects are already visible. From housing and infrastructure to manufacturing and repair, the people who keep projects moving and systems running are in short supply.


According to Employment and Social Development Canada, roughly 700,000 skilled trades workers are expected to retire between 2019 and 2028. That scale of transition presents a clear challenge: replacing experience at pace, without compromising quality or readiness.

Skilled trades are foundational to Canada’s economy and daily life. When the workforce pipeline slows, projects stall, costs rise, and capacity tightens. Addressing this gap depends less on awareness and more on how effectively new workers are prepared to step into the field.

Where Training Meets the Workforce

Regulated career colleges across the country are already part of that preparation. Their programs are designed around applied learning and direct pathways into the trades, allowing learners to develop skills in settings that reflect real job conditions.

For many students, this approach shortens the distance between training and employment.

Each year, thousands of graduates move from classrooms and workshops into active job sites, supporting employers, strengthening local capacity, and helping stabilize trades sectors facing sustained demand.

From Training to Workforce Readiness

In the trades, readiness is shaped through experience. Workshops, labs, and hands-on projects allow learners to test their skills and build confidence. Apprenticeships and placements extend that learning into professional environments, where expectations become clear, and routines take shape.

The outcomes point to a system that works:

  • 81% of employed graduates work in roles related (71%) and somewhat related (10%) to their training, showing strong alignment with labour needs
  • 60% Of graduates were employed within three months of graduation.

Stories on Workforce: Graduate Highlights

Through the Start Strong 2026 campaign, the National Association of Career Colleges is sharing graduate stories that put these outcomes into context. They reflect different paths into the trades, shaped by hands-on learning and real-world experience.

Featured stories include:

You can also explore Skilled Trades: A Stronger Workforce, A Stronger Canada, which focuses on how regulated career colleges contribute to a stronger skilled trades pipeline.

As Canada works to close the skilled trades gap, the focus remains clear: practical training, strong pathways into work, and graduates ready to contribute when it matters.