As Nova Scotia ramps up efforts to fill job vacancies within the skilled trades, one pathway to those jobs — training through the Nova Scotia Community College — is, in some cases, stymied by waitlists.

Almost all of the trades and transportation programs at the college, which include fields such as aircraft and automotive work, carpentry, electrical, plumbing and welding have waitlists that can stretch into years for some students. In many programs, the waitlists exist at all NSCC campuses acro…