Ontario apprentices to pay new $400 per semester course fee

A new “user fee” has been levied against apprentices studying at Ontario schools. The $400 fee will be assessed for each eight-week training period which corresponds to a 240 hours of full time classroom instruction. The new levies come into effect on August 1st, 2002. Colleges will collect the fee, which will be deducted from their Provincial funding.

Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities announced the levies in a letter to training organizations and apprentices. According to Sandie Birkhead-Kirk, Director of Apprenticeship with the Ministry, “As workers earning while they learn, apprentices are well-positioned to pay a fee.”