Helmets to Hardhats program succeeds as hundreds of vets each year make the transition to skilled trades careers Canadian Design and Construction Report staff writer Canada’s Helmets to Hardhats pro- gram, where Canadian Forces mem- bers transition to good paying unionized construction trades careers, has proven it has staying power and is enhancing its nationwide initiatives, says executive director Greg Matte. “It’s progressing very well,” he said in a phone interview as he traveled in Manitoba. “We’ve been very success- ful in getting recurring funding” – turn- ing the initial seed funded initiative in 2011-12 to a lasting program. Helmets to Hardhats, based in part on a similar successful U.S. program, but adapted to Canadian requirements, has placed at least 500 veterans into apprenticeship or full employment in the past year. “That means, every five days, two vets are successful,” Matte said. However, he believes the real num- bers are even better than the recorded results. Apprentices, employers and unions aren’t required to report their successful placements and Matte says he continues to find scores of veterans who have discovered work through the program who he said aren’t showing up in the Helmets to Hardhats statis- tics. “I travel from one union to another,” he said. “When I visited one union, the business manager said: ‘We took in three vets over the past six weeks’ – but we were not told about the suc- cess or the vets had not registered with us.” In another situation he learned after the fact that a veteran had signed up for the program and told his friend about it. The former Canadian Forces colleague showed up at a union hiring hall, received a job offer, and was on his way – all unknown to Helmets to Hardhats’ administrators. “Despite the fact that the program is of no cost to the vet and all we ask of them, after we get them into a new career, is to report how it worked out, only one in four fulfill that request,” he said. As you may have guessed from the previous narrative, Helmets to Hard- hats works within the unionized sector and much of its funding comes from the unions, owners and contractors that are part of Canada’s building trades. Matte says the union focused model provides real advantages to the veterans: Safety training and stan- dards are top notch, the unions co-or- dinate solid apprenticeship training programs, pay is good, and while there can never be 100 per cent job security, the employment stability and mobility is much better for the unionized work- ers than in the non-union environment. As an example, until last year, Hel- mets to Hardhats had great success in placing veterans in the then booming Alberta oil industry environment. Of course, things have changed and the boom there has turned to bust, but most of the members are continuing their careers. “This forced us to diversify a little more and open up more opportuni- ties,” he said. “There are 275 union lo- cals part of this program across Canada. In May, 2015, we put out a challenge to all locals across Canada to accept at least one vet per year.” Matte said that modest number won’t cause hardship or risk the jobs of existing union members in markets where conditions aren’t perfect, as there is always some attrition in the in- dustry. “The initiative has made a lot of inactive locals realize they don’t need to do much to add a whole lot to the program.” The Canadian Design and Construction Report — January 2016 – 19