Higher Skills In Demand

The Packet & Times

Highly skilled tradespeople are a hot commodity in the Orillia area, local manufacturers say.

"We've got orders booked out until the end of the year right now," David Smith, operations manager with Oro Design and Manufacturing, said Thursday. “Our problem is we need to get more employees in to speed up how fast we’re building.”

The Oro-Medonte Township truck manufacturer has been struggling to find welders, mechanics and electricians.

"The amount of labour we can get this year will directly influence how many trucks we sell this year," Smith said.

The company typically receives 15 to 20 applications with each job advertisement it posts.

"They're all welders, but there is a definite difference between a skilled labourer and somebody that’s done it before," Smith said. "They need to know the theory behind the welding."

Huronia Machine Services in Orillia is facing a similar situation.

"We have a lot of guys who are sort of medium-skill level who end up having to take a lot of direction from a number of higher-skilled guys," manager Rob Kain said.

With local manufacturing plants seeing decreasing staff numbers, Kain thought there would be more skilled tradespeople looking for work.

"That really hasn’t been the case," he said. "It seems like everybody who is good is already working somewhere."

The company, located on United Drive, currently employs 12 CNC machinists, but needs those with higher skill levels, Kain said.

"If somebody was to walk in who had a lot of higher-skilled machinist experience, I would definitely be interested," he said.

Becoming a CNC machinists can involve educational training, practical experience and usually an apprenticeship.

"Nobody’s pushing their kids in that direction; that's for sure," Kain said.

Oro Design and Manufacturing has been transitioning into a larger shop in order to expand its production. It has been working toward doubling its workforce to 30 employees.

It's not that skilled workers aren't out there, Smith said.

"It's that everybody wants them. The skill sets we need... are in demand," he said.

Just this year, Kubota Metal hired one electrician and one mechanic.

"We didn’t seem to have any problems finding (them)," human resources manager Maureen McLean said.

Kubota doesn't employ many tradespeople and doesn't see enough turnover in its employees to notice a shortage, she said.

"We haven't had a requirement for any new people in our machine shop or fabrication shop," she said, adding it's been a couple of years since Kubota hired a machinist or welder. "It seems when people get here, they don't leave until retirement."

Orillia Tool and CNC hasn't been in the market for CNC machinists for a while, office manager Judy Wilkie said.

The small company has four CNC machinists.

"We've had the same employees for 11 years now," Wilkie said. "We haven't really had to look for any."

The Forest Plain Road company has hired an apprentice "just out of college," she said.

Companies will start noticing the employee shortage when they expand or when their employes retire, Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop said.

"We're going to have a lot of people leaving the workforce that are highly skilled and no one to replace them," the Progressive Conservative apprenticeship critic said.

Dunlop, a licensed plumber, has been trying to address trades concerns for years.

"It goes back to the stigma of working in factories or working with your hands," he said. "(People) don't really acknowledge the fact that in any of these trades, you've got to be highly skilled and very bright."

Dunlop is currently working on "positive and aggressive changes in our existing system," he said.

"(These) would get more people out there and trained and ready to work in our workforce," Dunlop said.

The economic downturn also plays a factor.

"A lot of young, skilled trades professionals have moved out of Ontario and gone to Manitoba and Saskatchewan and Alberta," he said.

On Wednesday, Dunlop met with a chemical company based in Niagara Falls that is also facing a shortage of skilled tradespeople.

"They actually went to Fort McMurray (Alta.) to try and get Ontario people to come back," he said.

"The whole area that I'm covering with apprenticeship reform and skilled trades is just massive."

Oro Design and Manufacturing has begun training internally.

"The labour is not available," Smith said. "We can't close down, so we have to train... just to guarantee that the labour's there."

The company focuses on tradespeople who have finished school, but lack hands-on experience.

"We would be willing to invest the year or two it would take to show them what we do and to teach them sort of the real-life application of it," Smith said.

The company has started training electricians and assembly workers.

"They might know one skill. We’re going to teach them two or three other skills," Smith said.

Teaching the trade also gives his company a competitive edge, he said.

"It makes the job more engaging and is a little more reason to work for us rather than someone else," he said. "You have to keep that in mind. You’re competing against other employers for labour."

Oro Design and Manufacturing is holding a job fair today from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at its shop at 3 Small Cres.

It is targeting skilled tradespeople who are already employed in the field.

Image: David Smith, operations manager with Oro Design and Manufacturing, has noticed a lack of skilled tradespeople in the Orillia area. The Oro-Medonte Township company is doubling its workforce, but can’t find employees to fill the positions.