The Persistence Behaviour of Registered Apprentices: Who Continues, Quits, or Completes Programs?

We utilize a multinomial probit model and the 2007 National Apprenticeship Survey (NAS) to investigate the persistence behaviour of individuals enrolled in apprenticeship programs. These behaviours include continuing, discontinuing (or quitting) and completing programs. The NAS contains detailed demographic data as well as other data regarding respondents’ backgrounds and apprenticeship characteristics. Our results show that program completion is positively related to being married, having fewer children, being non-Aboriginal and not a visible minority, not being disabled and having a higher level of education before the beginning of the program. Completion is negatively related to time in the program (beyond the normal program length) and the number of employers. Type of technical training and having a journeyperson always present enhance the probability of completion. The regional unemployment rate has little effect on completion. There are also large provincial and trade group differences that are generally consistent with the sparse literature on this topic. Males and females have similar completion probabilities when we control for other influences.