Tradesmen will have to get new NTB certificates by April 2005 or face $10,000 fines under legislation passed in the Senate yesterday.

The National Occupational Certification Act 2004 was introduced to the Senate by yesterday.

Under this Act, all workers of certain trades will report to the NTB, fill out some paperwork and get a certificate. ?The list of designated trades will be published in the official Government Gazette,? Sen. Roban said. ?A provisional certificate will be given containing information detailing what is required to get the full national certification.?

However, this temporary certificate may have to be followed up with a more in-depth look at the worker?s skills. Experienced workers may not have to follow as intense a training programme as apprentices, or any training at all, he said, adding: ?The closure of the Technical School in 1972 was one of the most untimely and miscalculated decision?s in the Island?s history?, adding: ?It was a tragedy.?

And he said there had been ?a significant amount of economic and social ramifications? due to the school?s closure.

The National Training Board (NTB) was formed in 1997, he said, but now had new aspirations as ?a cardinal theme of the social policy agenda requires this Government to right significant and historic wrongs?.

He said Bermudians ?as British Citizens? will be more likely to get jobs in the UK and Europe with a National Training Certificate. NTB copied the training programme of Alberta in Canada as: ?The ILO (International Labour Organisation) rates Alberta?s system as the best in the world.?

In August 2002, Alberta produced the ?Bermuda National Certificate Programme? for the Bermuda Government. The Canadian Government said a National Certificate Programme would ?strengthen and enhance Bermuda?s position in a global workforce?.

In June 2003, 12 NTB staff visited Alberta to see how their training programme worked. said: ?Young apprentices today are more focused on their starting pay rather than what they can learn from an industry.

?You used to pay an employer to learn from them! It was like paying for school ... Not everyone can be doctors, lawyers and legislators.

?But there are lots of people out there who know their trade better than a person who could be a doctor... We need to look at the past and see what we can learn from it, as well as look at the past and determine what was wrong with it,? he said.said ?all he knew was that tradesmen were terrified to have to face up to the evaluation or test... Sooner or later they are going to have to prove themselves capable. If that means a written test its going to be a problem for some tradespeople who are not great on words or numbers. It will cause angst for some older people.? said he was a ?former tech boy?. said he was ?a third generation apprentice... When one learns a trade, there is not too many things he cannot do... It gives you a broad knowledge of working in many other parts, opposed to the economic sector?.

?I have (tradesmen) friends right now who are 55- to 60-years-old who own six, eight, ten houses in Bermuda.?

He said his 13-year-old grandson was working as a plumbing apprentice next summer as he will go home ?with some money and new skills?.

?And some muscles,? chipped in.

?Pay him time-and-a-half?, added.

Sen. Tannock said NTB programmes were to be: ?In the senior high schools very shortly... People are going to want the little labels on the side of their van that say, yes, I?m certified.?asked: ?Who of our people are working in the construction sites??also an Independent, thanked the NTB, who trained her older son.

?I know they can be little knuckleheads, but your country needs you to stick with it,? before chastising Senators for saying there were only ?tech-boys? as ?there were also tech-girls,? like herself.said he wanted more Bermudian motorcycle mechanics because: ?I know they have the ability to strip cycles and put them back together.?

Sen. President Oughton said he had two concerns with the Act, for instance, who was going to test a mechanic with 40 years experience.

?If I want to be an electrician and want certification, I go to the college to do an electrical course it takes five years,? he said. ?To get a diploma to be a plumber at the college takes a full-time two years. What?s going to happen if someone like a mature student wants to change vocation he?s not going to enrol as an apprentice for five years??

He said the NTB should offer modular training programmes for electricians, like industrial, residential and commercial.

In reply, Sen. Roban said there was a clause in the bill regarding the ?transition of skilled workers?, but Senate Pres. Oughton said the clause ?refers to regulations, and we all know how long it takes regulations to come out. There is still going to be a period of uncertainty?.

But Sen. Roban insisted the new law was not going to come into effect until April, adding: ?Experienced workers do not need apprenticeships.?