The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum (CAF-FCA) launched its first membership campaign, calling for champions of apprenticeship to come forward to support a national research, discussion and promotion mandate.

“The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum has fundamentally changed the apprenticeship conversation in Canada, bringing together apprenticeship stakeholders to the benefit of all,” said Pat Blackwood, director of skilled trades at CAW Canada and the organization’s outgoing chair. “We’ve built an organization that provides unique research insights, facilitates national apprenticeship conversations, profiles promising initiatives and promotes apprenticeship as a valued pathway to great careers in the trades.”

CAF-FCA’s board learned last July that operational funding would be discontinued as of March 2013 as part of cuts to the federal government’s Sector Council Program. The board has been examining options to allow CAF-FCA to continue its national apprenticeship mandate.

“With 12 years of government funding, we’ve built something truly unique—a national collaborative body that brings the stakeholder community together to solve apprenticeship challenges,” said Dave Suess, CAF-FCA’s incoming chair and apprenticeship learning advisor at Suncor Energy. “We’ve become a place where the apprenticeship community comes together to share its successes and collaborate to effect change. It’s time for stakeholders who recognize this value to step forward and put some skin in the game.”

CAF-FCA is a not-for-profit organization working with stakeholders in all regions of Canada. It influences Canadian apprenticeship strategies through research, discussion and collaboration to promote apprenticeship as an effective model for training and education. Members are expected to include apprenticeship champions, practitioners and trainers across Canada, as well as businesses, apprentices and journeypersons.

More information about membership levels and benefits are available at www.caf-fca.org under Membership.