CAMBRIDGE, ONT. — The Ontario government has announced new supports for manufacturing workers looking to train for a new career.
The changes, introduced March 10, include waiving certain eligibility requirements to give workers faster access to training supports.
The support program, known as Second Career, will help workers with retraining costs such as tuition, books and transportation, stated a release.
Effective April 1, 2020, laid-off manufacturing workers will no longer be required to search for a job for 26 weeks to qualify for Second Career. They can also now apply regardless of how long they had been working in the manufacturing or auto industry.
Since its launch, Second Career has helped approximately 110,900 people retrain for a new occupation, stated the release.
The Second Career program was launched in 2008 as a response to layoffs during the recession.
In the third quarter of 2019, there were about 18,700 vacant jobs in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Barrie Economic Region, with demand for mechanics, cooks, carpenters, heavy equipment operators and millwrights, the government reported.
On average there were over 10,000 manufacturing workers per month in receipt of Employment Insurance across Ontario from January to November 2019.
The changes to Second Career will apply to manufacturing and auto workers who were permanently laid off on or after Jan. 1, 2019. All other laid-off workers will be able to apply for Second Career under the previously established eligibility rules.
“Employers are looking for workers, and workers are looking for jobs. With more responsive training programs, we can help both,” said Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development Monte McNaughton in the statement.
“Over this spring and summer we will work closely with business and training stakeholders to review all our employment and training programs to learn how to improve them.”
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