Sockdogg

Hi, I'm asking on behalf of a friend who moved to Canada from the UK 2.5 years ago and who currently works in the drywall trade.

He's looking for options to retrain, but the financial constraints that he and his family would be under if he left his current job are too great, are there any federal or provincial retraining programs that he could do on a part-time basis, or any way to have his income supported while he's going through a retraining program?

If he doesn't find something soon I feel he and his young family will move back to the UK.

If it helps with suggestions we are in Nova Scotia.

Thanks for any suggestions.

AmyDavid

I assume they have PR?

What does he want to train to be? Something else construction based or something completely different?

Sockdogg

Still in construction, but maybe electrical/plumbing. The drywalling just always seems to be the bottom of the heap with no room to progress.

It really depends on the training options, where he is now the company only does drywalling so no room to move even part time to another post within the same company. I know he'd be happier even if it was just 1 or 2 days/week on the job training in another field.

I suppose age is another factor, you want to be moving away from the heavy lifting side of things so its best to think a little ahead of time.

Yes they are PR.

AmyDavid

Yeah my OH is a drywaller here in NS and work is really low on the ground at the moment as well. Your okay if your a Union guy because you get better wages but there is no Union work to be had at the moment.

My OH is 40 and we are at the same conclusion - he is too old to be doing this now and we are searching out a new career for him as well.

Let me have a dig around and see what I can find out.

AmyDavid

This may be worth a look - http://nsapprenticeship.ca/index.shtml

Sockdogg

Thanks for the link.

Your situation sounds identical to my friend, he turned 40 at Christmas and drywalling is a younger mans game.

I think he was surprised that after 2.5 years there was no progression in the job, in the UK he'd moved away from the more manual/heavy lifting side of things as these were left for the youngsters coming into the trade.

What area is your OH looking to go into?

AmyDavid

It sure is.

We are not sure yet - we are looking at all areas of construction - perhaps managing sites right down to a complete change. My OH's background is in the geotechnical field so he may go back to Uni for a bit and re-train and get back into that.

As you said, it's hard to do anything as you can't stop earning the drywall wage to go off and learn something new - you still need to be providing for your family.

JonboyE

Another option is to set up his own dry walling company. He can pay some young guys to do the heavy lifting and he can concentrate on supervising and training and developing the business.

Then he as unlimited career opportunities.

Sockdogg

That sounds easy enough, but the amount of work needed to employ 2 people I think is not there at the moment. I could be wrong, its not my trade.

Thanks for the input though.

AmyDavid

I would agree with this - setting up your own business and finding reliable guys to do the work would be hard enough - actually finding enough work to keep them busy would be even harder/