Bob Morgan

Baker ’66

Published on January 31, 2019

Apprentice bakers across Canada have Bob Morgan to thank, at least in part, for helping to define the skill sets they should possess.

An instructor in NAIT’s Baker program from 1969 to 2000, Morgan participated in establishing Skills Canada Alberta and the Red Seal exam for apprentice bakers, both of which encourage excellence in the baking trade.

“To encourage the trades also encourages the growth of our country. Canada was built by tradespeople.”

As a volunteer in the early days of Skills Canada – the not-for-profit organization that promotes careers in the skilled trades – Morgan helped develop the high-level provincial and national competitions. “The biggest impact was for the person [competing] to realize he had become the best of the best,” says Morgan.

Morgan was also part of a group of instructors and industry leaders who crafted the questions posed to bakers taking the Red Seal exam, which is the inter-provincial standards exam that confirms journeymen have achieved a nationally recognized level of competency.

Prior to the establishment of this exam, there weren’t national standards. Essentially, it was up to industry– the individual bakeries – to decide whether to recognize a journeyman ticket, Morgan says. Today, a Red Seal endorsement qualifies a journeyman to seek work in other provinces.

— Frank Landry