How a Kids' Show Is Quietly Tackling Canada's Trades Crisis

Trading Skills is a TVOKids original series that introduces children aged six to nine to the world of skilled trades. In each 11-minute episode, kid hosts Akeylah James and Brody Agmon shadow a real tradesperson — an electrician, a welder, an arborist, a baker-patissier — for a hands-on look at what they do and why it matters. The series launched on October 15, 2024, runs for 26 episodes, and was built on a simple, quietly radical idea: that the trades are a future worth getting excited about.

A children's show that takes the trades seriously

On the surface, Trading Skills is exactly what it looks like — a bright, fast-paced kids' show. Two young hosts, Akeylah James and Brody Agmon, visit a different workplace each episode and try their hand at the tools of the trade. It is produced by Riverbank Pictures with financial participation from the Canada Media Fund, and aimed squarely at the six-to-nine age group.

What sets it apart is breadth. Across its 26 episodes, the show profiles an unusually wide range of trades: auto service technician, electrician, ironworker, welder, arborist, construction craft worker, mining millwright, chef, baker-patissier, and hairstylist — alongside less-expected callings like goldsmith, horticulturist, and dairy herdsperson. When TVO announced the series, it framed the show as an invitation for kids to picture themselves in careers most television never shows them.

The real people kids meet

The show's quiet power is in its mentors. Kids meet Nhu Nguyen, described as the only woman in the world with a Porsche Classic certification. They meet Jamie McMillan, an ironworker who entered the trade in 2002 — when women made up roughly two per cent of the workforce — and who has since become a prominent advocate for women in the trades. And they meet Tammy Maki, a renowned Indigenous pastry chef whose work reframes a trade as craft, culture, and entrepreneurship all at once.

That casting is not incidental. The people a six-year-old sees holding the welding torch or running the shop quietly shape who grows up believing the work is "for them" — and a wider cast on screen tends to mean a wider field of people willing to try it.

What the show gets right

Plenty of programs tell kids the trades are important. Trading Skills does something harder: it makes them look fun. The format is built around doing, not lecturing — the hosts actually strike a weld, climb into a bucket truck, or pipe a pastry, with the working tradesperson coaching them through it. For a child, that hands-on framing matters more than any statistic about labour demand; it turns an abstract "career" into something tactile and a little bit thrilling.

It also normalizes range. By setting a goldsmith beside a mining millwright, and a dairy herdsperson beside a chef, the series resists the idea that "the trades" means one narrow thing. That breadth is honest to how Ontario's economy actually works — and it gives more kids a chance to see a version of the work that fits them.

Why a kids' show suddenly matters so much

Here is the part that turns a charming children's program into something closer to infrastructure. Canada is facing a serious shortfall of skilled labour. The federal government has projected that roughly 700,000 skilled trades workers will retire by 2028 — a wave of departures from a workforce of about four million tradespeople, with too few younger workers lined up to replace them. (We dig into the shortage by the numbers in a companion piece.)

The gap is not only about training capacity; it is about perception. For a generation, students were steered toward university and away from the trades, and the work was quietly cast as a fallback rather than a first choice. Reversing that has to start earlier than most career programs ever reach. By targeting ages six to nine, Trading Skills is working on the part of the pipeline that guidance counsellors and apprenticeship ads can't touch: the moment a child first decides what looks exciting.

It joins a broader Ontario push to rebuild interest in the trades — from Skills Ontario, which runs competitions and camps for students, to Skilled Trades Ontario, the provincial body that oversees apprenticeship and certification. If you want the practical version for your own household — how apprenticeships, licensing, and WSIB coverage actually work here — we walk through it in our guide to getting into the skilled trades.

What it means for the home you live in

It is tempting to file all of this under "nice problem for the 2040s." But the shortage is already in your driveway. Fewer available tradespeople means longer waits, higher prices, and more pressure on homeowners to choose well the first time — because the cost of choosing badly, from a botched electrical job to an unlicensed renovation, lands squarely on you.

Today's six-year-old watching an electrician on TVOKids may well wire an Ontario home in 2045. The contractor knocking on your door this week, though, is already here — and the harder question isn't who will do the work in twenty years, but who is verifying the people doing it right now.

That is the gap ProScore was built to close. As the contractor intelligence platform for Ontario, ProScore distils a contractor's reputation, verified credentials, customer sentiment, and business transparency into a single ProScore Trust Index — a clear, verifiable score you can check before you ever sign a quote. A show like Trading Skills is planting the seeds of the next generation of tradespeople; our job is to help you trust the ones already at your door. See exactly how the Trust Index works and what goes into every score. Trust. Built.

Frequently asked questions

What is the TVOKids show Trading Skills about?

Trading Skills is a TVOKids original series that introduces children aged six to nine to the skilled trades. In each episode, kid hosts Akeylah James and Brody Agmon visit a different tradesperson — from electricians and welders to arborists and bakers — to show young viewers what the work involves and why it can be a rewarding career.

When did Trading Skills premiere and who hosts it?

The series debuted on October 15, 2024 on TVOKids' digital platforms and on TVO. It runs for 26 episodes of about 11 minutes each, is hosted by kids Akeylah James and Brody Agmon, and was produced by Riverbank Pictures with financial participation from the Canada Media Fund.

Why is Canada facing a skilled trades shortage?

A large share of Canada's tradespeople are nearing retirement — the federal government has projected that roughly 700,000 skilled trades workers will retire by 2028 — while for years too few young people entered the trades to replace them. Early-interest programs like Trading Skills are part of a broader effort to rebuild that pipeline.