Ontario Allocates $36 Million to Ready Apprentices for Work

Feb 11 2016

The province has announced how it will allocate funds announced in the 2015 budget to help the next generation of skilled tradespeople access the training, equipment and facilities they need to prepare for the workforce.

Support will include:
• $23 million over two years through the Apprenticeship Enhancement Fund for 47 new capital projects at colleges and other training organizations for new equipment, new facilities and new technologies such as welding simulators, to provide opportunities for hands-on training

• $13 million through the Pre-Apprenticeship Training program to help support 84 pre-apprenticeship training programs, which will help more than 1,500 people primarily from traditionally underrepresented groups including women, Aboriginal peoples and at-risk youth, consider careers in the trades by developing their skills through in-class training sessions and work placements.

New annual apprenticeship registrations in programs across Ontario have grown from 17,100 in 2002-03 to more than 26,500 in 2014-15. This investment will help support the almost one in five new jobs in the province that is expected to be created in the trades in the coming decade.

The 47 successful Apprenticeship Enhancement Fund projects were selected through a call for proposals open to colleges and employer and union-based training centres issued in July 2015.