The International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC) represents the best-trained, most highly-skilled elevator constructor apprentices and mechanics not just in the United States of America but throughout North America, covering all ten provinces in the country of Canada as well as the US territories of Puerto Rico and Guam. While US-based elevator constructor apprentices receive their apprenticeship training through the IUEC’s USDOL-registered National Elevator Industry Educational Program (NEIEP), elevator constructor apprentices in Canada get their training through the Canadian Elevator Industry Educational Program (CEIEP).
“CEIEP is the largest trainer of apprentices across Canada, coast to coast. We start with the sun in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and we close with the sun in Victoria,” said Chris McIntyre, CEIEP’s Program Director.
As Program Director, Chris manages CEIEP’s day-to-day operations. This includes overseeing curriculum development, making sure classrooms have the resources they need, and staying on top of changes in safety and code regulations.
“It’s beneficial to the companies and the IUEC to make sure that the apprentices that are turned out have the best skill set for the industry,” said Chris. “An ideal class is a classroom where the training between the instructor and the student is back and forth in order to allow them to retain the knowledge required for their careers.”
Similar to NEIEP instructors, CEIEP instructors are at a minimum licensed journeypersons in their jurisdictions. The skills that they bring to the program are varied. They come from multiple companies, from the large manufacturers to the small independents. They have the ability to teach the apprentices the required skill sets that they’ll need for their careers ahead of them.
Like NEIEP students, CEIEP students do not pay out of pocket to attend classes – the cost of their training is covered by their IUEC education benefits. This includes books, lab materials, and online resources. In other Canadian trades’ apprenticeships, students are required to take eight weeks off of work for their training, but this is not the case with CEIEP. Elevator constructor apprentices continue to work and go to school at the same time, attending classes at night and on occasional weekend days.
There are differences in apprenticeship requirements for Canada and the US. Instead of one set of federal regulations that cover the entire country (as in the US), each Canadian province has its own requirements for apprenticeship training. To ensure that apprentices across Canada are on track with the requirements in the provinces where they live and work, CEIEP has put a program in place with its own national requirements above what all provinces require. For example, in Ontario, the requirement for in-class hours is 720 – so all across Canada, CEIEP teaches 775 in-class hours to ensure that apprentices who graduate from the program are able to qualify in every province.
In terms of work hours, minimum requirements vary from 7,000 to 10,000 hours. Once apprentices have completed their classes, work hours, and passed the CEIEP capstone mechanic exam, they are eligible to challenge the licensing exam for their province. CEIEP also helps apprentices prepare to take the exam in their province.
This summer, the ElevatorInfo team visited CEIEP headquarters in Pickering, Ontario, just outside of Toronto. The organization has been in its current location for about a year and a half. We had a chance to tour their facility and speak with Chris, along with Vithu Selvakumar, CEIEP’s Technology and Development Lead, and Rose Lenin, CEIEP’s Warehouse Manager.
Chris was excited to tell us about his goals for the future of CEIEP. “We are looking to move away from print material and provide every student with either a tablet or a laptop, which all that information will be located on, because we believe that we need to teach transferable skills… on the job site, when, adjusters show up, they come with a laptop. They come with a tablet. They come with a phone. Some tool that is used to work with the controller. We want to make sure that our apprentices, our students, our journey persons have the skill set of being able to work with a laptop or a tablet. By simply putting our material on that, it will force them to have that skill.”
Chris was initially hired as CEIEP’s Assistant Director under Dan Vinette, who had served as the Program Director for CEIEP since 2018. To ensure a smooth leadership transition, Dan and Chris swapped roles beginning in 2023. Today, Dan remains actively involved with CEIEP’s curriculum development, virtual reality, and translation projects. Working remotely from his home base in Gatineau, he has spent the last year traveling to CEIEP classrooms in every province of Canada to train instructors and area coordinators on CEIEP’s state-of-the-art virtual technology.
Chris also intends to expand the use of hands-on and virtual labs, with a goal to create a lab activity to go along with each of the program’s 25 modules. “We’re working with new technologies like VR, where students will be able to, in the virtual world, build scaffold. The first module that we have updated for the curriculum is module one, which is the 24-hour safety course that all apprentices are required to take before they can get a provincial license. Dan and Vithu have spent the last year building the course. We have integrated our new VR lab into it, which allows new hires to the industry to access a machine room, a cartop, and a pit in the virtual world safely before they ever set step on an elevator work site.”
Vithu Selvakumar, CEIEP’s Technology and Development Lead, is the tech expert driving the development of virtual reality in the CEIEP curriculum. With an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto and a master’s in Educational Technology from the University of British Columbia, she brings the skills and experience that will keep the CEIEP curriculum current with growing technological advances in vertical transportation. Working together with the CEIEP in-house team and subject matter experts from the elevator and tech industries, Vithu constructs virtual courses, manages the e-learning portal students and instructors use to access them, and conducts beta tests to ensure the student experience is in line with the organization’s goals.
Vithu spoke with us about a recent test-run of a new VR course she conducted with CEIEP students and instructors. “We had a pilot class of students in after the training that happened with the instructors, and the students were able to go through that pilot class and test out the virtual reality and the whole course that was created. We’ve received their feedback – it’s an iterative process, so we are able to continuously improve,” she said.
In addition to the 24-hour VR safety course that recently launched, Chris is eager to get more interactive VR programs up and running with CEIEP students across Canada. “CEIEP has embraced technology. We are working with some of the companies at the forefront of VR development… and Vithu has been at the forefront of that.”
Mike Funk, Business Manager of IUEC Local 82 in Vancouver and a CEIEP Trustee, emphasized the importance as well as the practical and safety-focused advantages of integrating advanced technologies like VR into the CEIEP curriculum. “You’re not just reading a textbook …they see what you see when you walk into a hoistway of machine room. They can pick out safety issues and dangerous situations…they get to see what the equipment is, how it reacts. So even a new (apprentice) who gets a permit coming in goes through a 24-hour safety course, gets to see the virtual reality … this is what you should do, this is what you should look for, so even before they even hit the job they know what they’re going into, and the idea is to keep them safe as they install, repair, or maintain the equipment.”
While at CEIEP headquarters, we also visited with Rose Lenin, CEIEP’s Warehouse Manager. Rose handles shipping and logistics of CEIEP’s labs, curriculum materials, and exams for all ten provinces and three territories. According to Chris, “she has singlehandedly altered the way in which CEIEP ships, and I know every instructor and area coordinator across the country is thankful for the changes that she’s brought to CEIEP.”
CEIEP recently traveled to the NEIEP Instructor Training Center in Warwick, RI, to meet with Director Dave Morgan, Assistant Director John Caughey, Head of Development, Lester White, and the NEIEP Development team. While there are differences in each organization’s curriculum based on differing needs in US and Canadian apprenticeship, there are many areas where they will be able to work together to benefit both. Virtual reality, hands-on labs, and safety are three areas they will be coordinating efforts in the future.
Chris is proud of the work CEIEP students have done in Ontario and beyond. “The elevators built in Toronto were built by the hands of CEIEP graduates. From the CN tower, which at one point was the tallest free-standing structure in North America and the world, to the sky dome, which is a one-of-a-kind stadium for people to come and visit, to our many commercial buildings in the core of Toronto that give lovely views of the city.”
With hundreds of IUEC-affiliated elevator companies across the US and Canada ready, willing, and able to meet the demands of your job, competitive bidding and a professional product are guaranteed. Contact us to receive more information on the IUEC signatory companies in your region, or enter your location in our interactive map.