A new report prepared for the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON) suggests that the construction apprenticeship system is flawed and in need of a redesign.

“Canada should look to behavioural science to significantly boost apprenticeship recruitment and completion rates in the skilled construction trades,” says RESCON president Richard Lyall. “By embracing behavioural science, we can achieve better training outcomes and improve how youth view the skilled construction trades.”

The report, Are We Ready to Build Canada? A Behavioural Analysis of Canada’s Construction Talent Pipeline and Skills Training Policy, examines barriers to apprentice recruitment, challenges within training, and issues affecting retention. The authors maintain that policy and program design must better reflect the human factors influencing training outcomes in the years ahead.

Improved outcomes and a more skilled workforce are critical to the success of Canada’s evolving economic landscape – shaped by tariffs and other adverse U.S. policy shifts, rapid advances in artificial intelligence, and long-standing productivity challenges. Yet, despite billions of dollars in public investment and strong demand for skilled labour, the deeper problem is the rate at which individuals enter and complete their apprenticeship training.

As the report highlights, “The training challenges for the construction skilled trades are behavioural as well as economic. They are shaped by the uncertainty, time pressures, self-doubt, and inertia that many people face, and by the system’s misaligned incentives and lack of support at key junctures in the skills journey.

“Canada needs to overhaul its system from one that merely provides opportunities to one that actively facilitates meaningful usage and completion. The missing ingredient is an understanding of why people behave as they do.” 

The report states that behavioural science – the study of cognitive constraints, social pressures, and behavioural barriers that shape human decision-making – could help address the growing challenge that is made more urgent by the economic pressures and opportunities facing Canada in 2026 and beyond.

With apprenticeship completion rates in Canada stuck since 2013 at 20 percent of registrations, despite the demand for workers, the damage is billions of dollars in lost GDP, worker incomes and tax revenues.

Lyall says the low completion rates can’t be overlooked, and applying behavioural science to the construction talent pipeline and skills training policy could significantly improve outcomes.

“While increased funding for apprenticeships is important, the greater challenge lies in how training policies and programs are designed and delivered,” he says. “The behavioural recommendations outlined in this extensive and well-researched report would help address these weaknesses.”

• Human Resources
• General Industry