Trade School Initiative Phase III Qualitative Research with Trade School Students and Instructors

Prepared for the:
Canada Revenue Agency
March 2011
Contract # 46558-114364/001/CY
POR 099-09

Prepared by:
SAGE Research Corporation

To request a full copy of this report, please contact Library and Archives Canada at:
613-996-5115 or 1-866-578-7777 or www.porr-rrop.gc.ca/index-e.html

Media Enquiries:
Media Relations
Canada Revenue Agency
4th Floor 555 MacKenzie Avenue
Ottawa ON K1A 0L5
media.relations@cra-arc.gc.ca

Executive Summary

The Federal Provincial Territorial Underground Economy Working Group (FPTUEWG) was created to address issues of concern regarding the underground economy and to share best practices in the identification of non-compliance. In partnership, the federal, provincial, and territorial organizations work towards reducing participation in the underground economy through research, information sharing, communication, education, and enforcement.

After developing an education module for high school students, the FPTUEWG investigated the possibility of developing a similar module for trade school students who apprentice in the construction sector. A cross-Canada consultation process revealed to the project partners that over half of trade school students intend to start their own business once they are licensed. Unfortunately, many businesses fail within the first couple of years as the new business owners know their trade, but perhaps lack general business acumen, including knowledge about tax obligations. Therefore, the aim of the FPTUEWG was to develop educational materials that would meet the basic information needs of this population, while also conveying fundamental information concerning tax obligations. Pilot educational materials, including a website and a video, were developed by the FPTUEWG so as to provide basic information about starting a new business, finding a trade job, available tax credits, apprentice programs, as well as clear information about taxes.

Prior to a full launch of such educational materials, the materials are being piloted and evaluated in a three-phase research program. In 2009 the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) undertook Phase One of the trade school research, consisting of focus group concept testing of the educational materials targeting trades students and recent trades graduates in a construction-related industrial sector.

The findings from that phase were used to modify the pilot educational materials. Phase 2 of the trade school research sought to examine the impact of the customized educational materials on a subset of the intended population through a quasi-experimental research design involving the administration of a series of questions in a controlled setting. The research was completed in March 2010 in the three provinces participating in the Trade School Educational Pilot: New Brunswick, Ontario, and British Columbia.

The present research constituted Phase Three of the research program. Between November 24 and December 21, 2010, six focus groups were held with carpentry and plumbing students in the latter half of an apprenticeship program, and 8 telephone interviews were conducted with carpentry and plumbing instructors. The research was conducted in the three participating provinces: New Brunswick, Ontario, and British Columbia. The primary objective of the student focus groups was to assess their reactions to the revised Tradelinks.ca website, and a secondary objective was to get their reactions to the video. The objectives of the instructor interviews was to explore their views on providing tax information to students and to get their overall reaction to the website.

The cost of the research was $48,511.93 (HST excluded).

Overview of Reactions to Tradelinks.ca

There was widespread positive overall reaction to the website among both student and instructor participants, as it was perceived as providing access to a variety of types of useful information for tradespeople. The majority of students said they would go to the website again in the future.

There were three topics presented on the Home page that were each of interest to a majority of the student participants:

• Financial assistance and benefits, including tax deductions and credits: this type of information appeared in the context of Apprenticeship and Starting a Business
  
  Students were interested in this information in both contexts. In the Apprenticeship context they perceived an immediate potential benefit. The financial information pertaining to Starting a Business was perceived as being of future interest.
  
  Instructors noted that there is little or no instruction in the apprenticeship programs on the general tax or financial aspects of working as a tradesperson. Overall, they believed apprentices typically are not well-informed about these matters, which helps explain the high student interest in these topics on the website.
• Jobs – particularly for information to help in finding a job
• Starting a Business – because the majority of students had this as a long term goal
  
  The instructor participants believed that at least in the short term, the majority of students upon graduating would work as employees for a period of time. An implication is that perhaps there needs to be another area on the website targeted to journeypeople working as employees. It could cover, for example, such topics as tax tips on credits and deductions, health and safety, worker rights, and the underground economy.

Very few participants said they would click on the links related to the UE that appear on the Home page.

With regard to some of the other components of the website:

• There was interest in provincial information, but more in the context of other topics (e.g., apprenticeship programs, rules and resources pertinent to starting a business, etc.) rather than as a topic in its own right.
• Very few participants would click on the Health and Safety tab, not because they consider it unimportant, but rather because they receive a great deal of instruction in health and safety in the apprenticeship program – and doubt the website has much new information to offer.

Reaction to Underground Economy Links and Information

Very few of the student participants said they would click on the links related to the underground economy (UE) that appear on the home page, and most of the instructors correctly predicted this reaction on the part of students. The reasons for not clicking stem from the participants attitudes towards the UE, and to some extent the wording and placement of the links.

It should be emphasized that participants did notice the links, so lack of visibility was not the issue. Indeed, quite a few participants said they perceived the UE-related links as appearing "on every page", and complained that there are too many UE-related links on the website. Some asked whether the site was designed primarily to convey anti-UE messages, with the other content added as window-dressing.

With regard to attitudes, it is very important to note that virtually all of the student participants – in both the plumbing and carpentry groups – viewed doing "side jobs" (as these were often called) as acceptable. Indeed quite a few explicitly said they did such jobs. The instructors concurred that this is commonplace.

In this context, most participants did not click on the UE-related links because they expected they would be told not to do cash jobs and that doing such jobs is a bad thing for the society/economy. They were not interested in reading this expected content because they believed they would not agree with it, and there was probably a defensive reaction as well of not wanting to be told that they are doing something wrong or bad.

What is interesting, however, is that when participants looked more closely at some of the information, particularly in Problems caused by working under the table, the majority of participants identified UE-related content that they felt should be on the Tradelinks.ca website, and that – in the right context – they might be interested in reading.

To summarize, on the page Problems caused by working under the table there were 3 topics that were of interest to quite a few participants:

• The 5 bullet points listing the possible consequences of getting caught – for example, some said it would be useful to put this on the Starting a Business page.
• The paragraph just above the heading Drawbacks of Working Under the Table, that talks about the consequences of getting hurt while working under the table – for example some said this would be useful to put on the Apprenticeship page.
• The 5 bullet points titled, Drawbacks of Working Under the Table: quite a few said this could be useful on the Starting a Business page, and perhaps also on the Apprenticeship page.

As participants talked about these sorts of information and how they could be of interest, there appeared to be several principles in terms of how the content might be presented on the website in a way that would be more likely to motivate interest:

• Make it personally relevant: Most of the participants did not want to read general arguments about why the underground economy is bad for Canadian society, basically because they do not believe the "side jobs" they do are bad for society or the economy. In this regard, the link labeled The Underground Economy appeared particularly likely to be perceived as leading to general statements about why cash jobs are bad for society.
  
  However, some were more likely to click on the link Problems caused by working under the table, because unlike The Underground Economy, they perceived the former as more likely to give personally directed information – i.e., as problems for me caused by working under the table.
• Don’t be preachy: That is, do not portray anyone doing any cash jobs as a bad person, basically because virtually none of the participants viewed tradespeople doing side jobs as "bad people."
• Try to frame the information positively: Quite a few participants suggested framing the UE information in a more positive way, by also pointing out the advantages of doing jobs legitimately. As one participant put it: They’re trying to scare you into reporting your income, as opposed to saying if you report your income these will be the rewards.
  
  Another example of a positive approach was a suggestion by several participants that the website explain how the tax aspects of doing a job legitimately can be easily handled. One participant put it as follows, If I could do a side job for a certain amount of money and I could claim it easily, then you would be more interested in doing it right. They should say how can I do this easily, how can I work above the table easily.
• Place the information in a relevant context that people are interested in for other reasons: This means particularly the Starting a Business and Apprenticeship sections, and probably the Jobs section could be better utilized as well. As mentioned earlier, quite a few participants said they perceived the UE-related links as appearing "on every page", and complained that there are too many UE-related links on the website. However, the issue may not be so much the number of times the information is shown, but rather how and where it is shown.

Reactions to the Home Page and the Main Topic Web Pages

Home Page: Both student and instructor participants were positive about the ease of quickly and easily seeing on the Home page the main topics addressed by the website. As noted earlier, because instructors believed the majority of apprentices will work at least for awhile as employees after graduation, there could be value in having another area on the website targeted to journeypeople working as employees.

With regard to treatment of UE-related links on the Home page, some participants did not like the way a link to the underground economy appears twice on the Home page, and in particular that it appears prominently in the third paragraph. They felt this makes it appear as if the website is primarily about the "underground economy", and this would detract from interest in the website.

Jobs Page: The majority of student participants said they would look at the Jobs page, and the reason was to look for job listings. By virtue of the Job Bank link on the Jobs page, the page was perceived positively as providing access to job listings. The other link on the page most likely to attract interest was Job Futures, primarily because it promised information on average wages. With regard to participant suggestions, some suggested providing help specifically for apprentices – e.g., by providing a list of employers in the region interested in hiring apprentices, or having a listing of jobs for apprentices.

With regard to the treatment of the UE on the Jobs page, it was suggested that a link to information on the risks of getting hurt while doing cash jobs be added.

Apprenticeship Page: The Apprenticeship page was perceived as providing two main types of information – financial information for people attending an apprenticeship program, and information for people considering enrolling in an apprenticeship program. Interest in the financial information was high because of the potential for personal financial benefit. Interest in the career information was low, basically because all of the student participants were already in the latter half of an apprenticeship program. However, virtually all participants strongly endorsed the value of having this information on the website for people in high school considering a career or for others considering an apprenticeship program.

With regard to the treatment of the UE on the Apprenticeship page:

• There is a paragraph where the word professional appears as a link: Even as an apprentice, it is never too early to start planning for the benefits and responsibilities of being a professional tradesperson. Several participants clicked on it because they were interested in learning about being a professional tradesperson, and were really annoyed and turned off when it took them to the Underground Economy web page. Overall, the paragraph and the link look like a good way to address the UE topic in a positive way, but the actual content delivered is not the best way to present the UE information.
• There were suggestions to add the following UE-related information: the consequences of the getting hurt while doing a cash job, and the Drawbacks of working under the table information that currently appears on the page, Problems caused by working under the table.

Starting a Business Page: The majority of student participants said they were interested in the Starting a Business component of the website, as it was a goal of theirs to start a business at some point. Virtually all of the participants interested in the page said it was very well done in terms of the variety of information and links provided.

With regard to the treatment of the UE on the Starting a Business page:

• It was suggested the following components of the Problems caused by working under the table page would be relevant and interesting in the context of starting a business: the bullet point list of the consequences of getting caught doing cash jobs, and the section Drawbacks of working under the table.
• An example of a positive approach to a UE topic that worked well is represented by the Get It In Writing link. The majority of participants were not familiar with this program, and many were quite interested in the concept as they understood it – i.e., information on the role of contracts and how a well-written contract benefits the tradesperson. Several also perceived this as a useful marketing tool that could be used with customers who might be tempted to hire someone who will do the job under the table.

Health and Safety Page: Very few student participants said they would click on the Health and Safety topic on the Home page. This is not because they consider health and safety unimportant, but rather because having been in an apprenticeship program for a few years, they have had repeated instruction on health and safety. Nonetheless, in the course of discussion, some participants did have suggestions for adding certain types of health and safety information to other pages on the website:

• Some suggested adding to the Apprenticeship page information on worker rights with respect to health and safety.
• Some suggested adding to Starting a Business information on an employer’s health and safety obligations and best practices with respect to employees. While participants did not connect this topic with the UE, it is worth noting that this could be a constructive way of inserting information about the importance of doing jobs legitimately in order to ensure proper health coverage for employees.
• Several participants – both students and instructors – suggested providing on the Apprenticeship page access to lists of health and safety courses, as this could help tradespeople improve their credentials.

Suggestions for Publicizing Tradelinks.ca

The most common student participant suggestions for how to publicize the Tradelinks.ca website were:

• On relevant Government of Canada websites, with the sites mentioned being Employment Insurance, the Job Bank, and Service Canada. Related to this, several participants suggested the provincial service provider – e.g., Service New Brunswick or Service Ontario.
• On the colleges’ websites: participants in the B.C. and New Brunswick focus groups felt strongly this would be a good place to advertise Tradelinks.ca, but for reasons that are not clear the participants in Ontario did not feel this would be very effective.
• In a pamphlet included in orientation materials given to people in their first year of an apprenticeship program.
• In high schools, in order to reach people who might be thinking about a career in the trades.

Video

Overall, participants did not particularly like the creative approach in terms of how the tradesperson was represented, and the "low-tech" approach to graphics. The impact of this is that the visuals themselves did not really engage participants’ interest and attention, and so it was up to the commentary to draw participants into the video.

The first approximately 40 seconds of the video includes shots of the Tradelinks.ca website. The majority of participants perceived this segment as reasonably effective in creating interest in going to the website.

Interest in, and positive reaction to, the video tended to decline after that first 40 seconds. Some participants thought the content of the banker segment somewhat interesting, but the majority reacted negatively, and particularly when UE-related messages appeared. It should be noted that only the first 2 ¼ to 3 minutes were played out of the full running time of approximately 6 minutes because of the students’ reactions.

Participants tended to suggest that if a purpose of the video is to motivate people to go to the Tradelinks.ca website, that it be cut back to the first 40 seconds or so.

Date modified:

2011-06-22