The Hamilton Skilled Trades Apprenticeship Consortium is a registered Ministry of Training Colleges & Universities (MTCU) apprentice sponsor, able to sponsor apprentices in seven Apprenticeship Certification Act (ACA) trades.

These include General Machinist, Heavy Equipment Mechanic, Industrial Electrician, Industrial Mechanic Millwright, Instrumentation & Control Technician, and Tool & Die Maker or Welder. However, as a consortium rather than an employer, HSTAC does not employ apprentices, nor can it sign off skills in the apprentice's Training Standard, HSTAC has not witnessed and therefore cannot deem the apprentice competent.

All these trades are offered as Coop Diploma Programs (CODA) at select colleges/training institutions across Ontario. If they are not available in your community, the training must be completed in the traditional approach, including three levels of trade school. Therefore employers wishing to provide an apprenticeship opportunity will have to follow a traditional apprenticeship approach. In some cases there may be insufficient participants to schedule appropriate trade school classes.

One of HSTAC's mandates is to assist apprentices to find work experience that will successfully result in the completion of their Certificate of Apprenticeship and Certificate of Qualification. HSTAC uses relevant information from the MTCU Application for Apprenticeship Training to administer the apprenticeship training program and shares this information with the provincial and federal government, who fund this initiative and monitor HSTAC's success. The database is not publicly shared and does not contain Social Insurance Numbers.

To facilitate this, the sponsored apprentice agrees during the apprentice registration process to update their apprenticeship records by signing an HSTAC "Apprentice Sponsor Terms and Conditions Agreement". Updates can be e-mailed to info@hstac.ca

Required Information

Specific information would include:

• Name
• Address
• City
• Postal Code
• Home Phone
• Cell Phone
• Email
• Level 1 Trade School Complete
• Level 2 Trade School Complete
• Level 3 Trade School Complete
• Certificate of Qualification Complete

Following a work experience, the apprentice is encouraged to complete a "Competency Analysis" check list for their specific trade indicating the skills sets in the Training Standard signed off by the employer sponsor as well as a list of skills where the apprentice believes they have received competency training, but were not signed off. This information may assist the apprentice or HSTAC to find an employer seeking an apprentice with specific completed competencies.