The Apprenticeship Incentive Grant (AIG) is a federal grant program that was implemented in 2007 that provides taxable cash grants of $1,000 (to a maximum of $2,000) to registered Red Seal apprentices who successfully complete their first and/or second year of training. The objectives of the AIG are to: increase access to apprenticeships in Red Seal Program trades; to encourage progression in and completion of apprenticeship training; and promote inter-provincial mobility. A new $2000 Apprenticeship Completion Grant (ACG) was introduced in 2009 to complement the AIG.
In 2009 an advertising campaign was launched to raise awareness of the AIG with apprentices and with young adults considering entering into the trades. This campaign was continued in 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. The primary target for this campaign is apprentices enrolled in Red Seal-designated trades to heighten awareness of the existence of these two supports available for those who continue in their program. The secondary audience in the first year of the campaign was young adults and was designed to increase awareness of the type of supports available to students who choose to enrol in an apprenticeship to pursue a career as a skilled tradesperson in a Red Seal trade. This secondary target group was not a focus of the campaign this year.
Public Opinion Research (POR) is a necessary next step to enable Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) to gauge the success of its outreach activities thus far, and to refine efforts where necessary to better reach the target audiences. Because the combined advertising and outreach campaign exceeds $1,000,000, this public opinion research will take the form of the mandatory Advertising Campaign Evaluation Tool, with additional validating and benchmarking questions following the ACET instrument. The current research is designed to assess the effectiveness of the campaign with the general public, as well as with the principle target group of students enrolled in apprenticeship programs.
Information obtained through this public opinion research will allow HRSDC to determine the impact of its advertising campaign and provide direction on areas where the campaign can be adjusted. The findings provide useful information to improve future campaigns which are better targeted, more informative and better geared to the target population and Canadians at large.