ACCESS Trades has a number of formal and informal partnership agreements with training providers, other AHRD agreement holders, employers and other stakeholders.  We are pleased to have an agreement with the Industry Training Authority (ITA) to sponsor Aboriginal apprenticeship.  This agreement has allowed ACCESS Trades to sponsor trainees who are entering into their first year of apprenticeship.  Employers acknowledge and respect the apprenticeship status of our trainees and understand their obligation to provide the appropriate apprenticeship training.

ACCESS Trades has formal agreements with Metis Nation BC and Seabird Island to register and support their trainees entering into apprenticeship. We also work with individual apprentices from the local First Nations Communities in Vancouver.

Partnerships with BCIT and NEC have strengthened our ability to offer a broader range of training and at the same time maintain the high standards our Aboriginal trainees need to be competitive.  These partnerships have also assisted in leveraging additional training dollars and further enhancing our ability to offer a broader range of options to our urban Aboriginal clients.

In 2007, we entered into an agreement with the Vancouver Olympic Committee and Rona to deliver an Aboriginal carpentry-training program at the Vanoc Fabrication Shop.  This 30-week, level I apprenticeship and work experience program will be delivered in July 2008.  The program will give multi barrier Aboriginal men and women the chance to complete the first year technical and work requirements of the four-year carpentry apprenticeship program.  Participants will also have the experience of being a part of the building of the 2010 Olympic Games.  Recruitment for this program began early in January 2008.