Ontario Expanding Youth Training Programs to Promote Skilled Trades, Appoints Advisory Panel

August 28, 2020

The Ontario government is investing $43 million in expanded youth training programs to give young people exposure to more employment options. The programs are meant to help increase awareness and encourage youth to acquire the skills that will start them down the path to lifelong success.

The government’s investments to attract and train youth in the trades include:

• $5 million, an increase of $3.5 million, to Skills Ontario so they can increase awareness of the trades among elementary and secondary students.
• $17 million, an increase of $2.3 million, in the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP) to send representatives to schools to provide high school students with the opportunity to learn about work in the skilled trades, and/or train as apprentices while completing their Ontario Secondary School Diploma
• $21 million in Ontario’s Pre-Apprenticeship Training program, giving students and graduates exposure to a variety of good jobs in the skilled trades. The program is free for participants and includes a work placement

They will advise on increasing awareness of the skilled trades among elementary school students, starting in grade one, with a focus on grades seven and eight, and on making it easier for high school students to learn about the options in the trades and to begin an apprenticeship pathway while continuing to earn secondary school credits.

This panel of advisors, including Jennifer Green (Director of Competitions & Young Women’s Initiatives, Skills Ontario), Adam Melnick (Heat and Frost Insulators Local 95 Ontario, Director of Government and Community Relations), and Andrew Pariser (Vice President, RESCON), consists of industry leaders that will work with youth, educators, business, parents, and other key partners and will advise the Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development on how to make the skilled trades a viable choice for young people. Green is among the advisors who will work to introduce students from grade one to secondary school to the skilled trades in order to ensure that Ontario’s youth are aware of and encouraged to pursue the opportunities in these career paths.

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