Overview

The Skills Development Fund offers funding to organizations for innovative projects that address challenges to hiring, training or retaining workers, including apprentices, during a pandemic.

COVID-19 has created pressing challenges for businesses, workers, job seekers and communities across the province. And while training and retraining are essential for Ontario’s economic recovery, the pandemic has affected education, training and employment service providers as well.

The $115 million Skills Development Fund offers two funding rounds to support innovative, market-driven solutions that can help people and businesses make it through the pandemic successfully. These solutions may also lead to lasting improvements to employment and training in Ontario.

Eligibility

Eligible organizations

The following organizations are eligible to apply to the Skills Development Fund:

• employers with a physical presence and licensed to operate in Ontario
• apprenticeship training delivery agents (TDAs), other than those listed below as co-applicants
• non-profit organizations with a physical presence in Ontario
• professional/industry/employer/sector associations
• trade unions/union affiliated organizations
• municipalities

The following organizations are eligible to apply to the Skills Development Fund as a co-applicant with one or more of the organizations above:

• Publicly assisted colleges, universities or Indigenous Institutes in Ontario
• Private career colleges registered under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005

Project requirements

Applications must show how the funding will support one or more of the following focus areas:

• Support the skills and talent needs of economic sectors or employers that have been impacted by the pandemic.
• Better align education, training and skills development with the needs of employers and the local labour market
• Test local solutions that better support labour market needs in communities that have been hit hard by the pandemic or are at risk of facing a disproportionate impact.
• Better support the employment of women, youth, persons with disabilities, racialized groups, Indigenous peoples and other groups that are traditionally underrepresented in some sectors.
• Improve the quality of skills training, strengthen provision of worker and job seeker supports, or the capacity to deliver training safely and effectively during a pandemic.
• Create solutions that take jobs seekers and workers at risk of layoff to jobs in sectors with high growth prospects or a high demand for workers, like advanced manufacturing or health care professions like personal support workers.
• Increase access to Ontario’s apprenticeship system by encouraging greater employer participation and improving supports for apprentices on-the-job, and in-class through the provision of wrap-around supports, up-to-date training equipment and increased capacity.
• Increase apprentice registrations, training progression and training completion by improving the apprentice experience either on-the-job or during in-class training.
• Give job seekers, laid-off workers or those at risk of layoff immediate access to employment, training supports, job placements or work experience.
• Improve the recruitment and career advancement chances for workers with the right essential, technical and employability skills.

Apply for project funding

Two rounds of funding are planned for the Skills Development Fund.

• The first funding round in February 2021 will offer up to $100 million
• The second funding round in Spring 2021 will offer $15 million

For Assistance: Contact

Updated: March 2, 2021

Published: February 5, 2021

EMPLOYMENT ONTARIO

Canada-Ontario Job Grant Program

Canada-Ontario Job Grant (COJG) provides opportunities for employers, individually or in groups, to invest in their workforce, with help from the government.

The Canada-Ontario Job Grant provides direct financial support to individual employers or employer consortia who wish to purchase training for their employees. It is available to small, medium and large businesses with a plan to deliver short-term training to existing and new employees. Important to know:

Employers can get up to $10,000 in government support per person for training costs.

The training has to be delivered by an eligible, third-party trainer.

Employers with 100 or more employees need to contribute 1/2 of the training costs. Small employers with less than 100 employees need to contribute 1/6 of training costs.

For employer groups who want to apply for training supports the government offers a COJG Consortium Stream. The Consortium Stream allows a group of employers (two or more employers) to pool their resources to support common training objectives and goals. To apply as a consortium, the intermediary organization needs to ensure all the participating employers and trainees meet COJG requirements, and are able to make their required contribution towards the training cost.

Most organizations acting as an intermediary are eligible for administrative funding equal to 15% of the government contribution.

If you're an employer with a particular skills demand, the Canada-Ontario Job Grant might be right for you. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

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