Costs, grants and staffing

How long the program takes

Apprentices must complete 3,720 on-the-job hours. The hours they already work for you count, so there is no separate on-the-job requirement to schedule around.

The schooling portion usually takes about three years, and between two and four depending on how many courses the employee takes each semester. Most take one or two, and courses run in the fall, winter and summer.

What the agency pays

Employees typically pay for their own courses: $50 to $150 per course and roughly $2,000 over the program, according to the colleges. There is no fee to the employer. The real cost to the agency is staff time, covered below.

Employees are not paid by the employer for their time in class unless the agency chooses to. Any incremental costs, such as backfilling a shift or offering tuition reimbursement, are determined by your agency.

What Ontario pays the sponsor

The Achievement Incentive pays eligible sponsors at milestones. For the DSW apprenticeship the grant is $1,000, paid when the apprentice is certified. You may see larger totals quoted for the program. Those assume trades with several in-class levels, each of which earns a payment. DSW courses are not organised in levels, so those payments do not arise here.

The extras stack, so a sponsor can receive up to $5,000 for an apprentice who qualifies for both, and $1,000 otherwise. Amounts and rules change; check the current Ontario page before you budget on it. The federal Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit applies to Red Seal trades only, so it does not apply to DSW.

Staffing

Many agencies ask first about coverage, not money. An apprentice needs three things from you:

• a trainer with protected time to observe their work and sign off skills
• enough variety of work to demonstrate every skill set
• a schedule that lets them attend class

Plan for this before you register an apprentice, and treat the trainer's time as part of the cost.

What apprentices must have

To register, an employee must be at least 16 and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. They must hold an Ontario Secondary School Diploma, GED or equivalent, and have your agency as sponsor. Employees on work visas are not eligible.