Summary
Today, Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development and MPP Deepak Anand, his Parliamentary Assistant were joined by Michael Parsa, MPP for Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill and Daisy Wai, MPP for Richmond Hill to announced that an additional $83.3 million is being provided to support ground-breaking training projects that upskill workers and prepare job seekers for meaningful work in their communities through the Skills Development Fund.
Minister McNaughton made the announcement at the LiUNA Local 506 Training Centre in Richmond Hill. Earlier this year, LiUNA received funding to teach construction apprentices how to operate a wide array of heavy machines and offer workers and apprentices free access to online skills and safety courses through LinkedIn Learning.
Key Messages
- With almost 150 projects so far, the first round of the Skills Development Fund was a tremendous success, helping 260,000 workers and job seekers around the province take the next step in their careers
- However there are still currently more than 250,000 jobs across our province going unfilled daily, costing us billions in lost productivity.
- To address this labour shortage, our government is investing an additional $83.3M through the Skills Development Fund in innovative training projects that will help train workers for in-demand jobs.
- Beginning tomorrow at 9 a.m., the fund will begin accepting proposals for the second round of funding and is expanding its eligibility to allow an even wider range of organizations to apply, helping give more people the training needed to fill the shortage of skilled workers in Ontario. Interested organizations can apply through Transfer Payment Ontario.
- Organizations eligible for funding include employment service and training providers, labour, community, business and industry organizations, municipalities, hospitals, Indigenous Band offices, Indigenous skills and employment training agreement holders, service system managers.
- This funding can also be used to cover a wider range of financial supports for trainees, including expenses for transit and child care.
- Project proposals will be given special consideration if they can clearly show how they will support postsecondary and high school graduates with disabilities or those experiencing mental health challenges.
- The Fund was designed to support fresh ideas for training and skills development that will help keep our economy open and make our workers more resilient.