Trade Training

In every single nook and cranny of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, you’ll find people who are fully committed to world-class training as the best strategy to maintain (and grow!) our market share in a highly competitive world.

The better and the more up-to-date out skills are, the more productive we are, and the safer we work. That spells a BIG advantage to our employers, and it makes it worth their while to pay us a little more in pension and benefits.

The Alberta Carpenters Training Centre operates three training centres – in Calgary, Fort McMurray and Edmonton. All are equipped with workshop and classroom space. Last year, our Centres achieved a space and resource utilization rate closely approaching 100%.

We’re so committed to training that we’re building a $15 million, 35,000 square-foot training centre in Edmonton, and in future years we plan improvements to our other two centres.

In 2005, nearly 2,900 members acquired, upgraded or updated their skills at our Alberta training centres, and more attended courses at the $30 million, state-of-the-art UBC International Training Centre in Las Vegas.

No members (including those who travel to the US) pay for their training courses. In fact, during 2006, the Training Centre spent more than $235,000 in hotel, living allowance and travel expenses for members to access training courses.

We are funded by the Alberta Carpenters Training Fund, which in turn is funded by both employer contributions and members through our collective agreements.

The Alberta Carpenters Training Centre delivers one of the most comprehensive Industrial Scaffolder Apprenticeship programs in North America. Last year alone, more than 500 members took part in this three-level program. The quality of our scaffolder training is such that Alberta-trained scaffolders are highly regarded all around the world. In our new training centre, we’ll have even more space for this program, as well as both space and equipment to increase our training in traditional carpentry skills as well.

The Training Centre's web site carries a full list of courses. Please check it out!