Employment Skills Training

Produced by the Mowat Centre at the School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto.Many Canadians rely on government-funded programs to help them to upgrade or update their skills when they are out of work. Today’s system was largely designed in a different time for the markedly different labour market of the 1980s and 1990s. The fact that a substantial share of government skills training support is built into the Employment Insurance (EI) system leaves many of those in need of assistance ineligible for training (because they don’t qualify for EI). Because the system is fragmented between different programs and different federal, provincial and Aboriginal government departments, other people in need of training fail to connect to available programs. Others face financial barriers to access. In the workplace, employers in Canada invest less in training than many of our competitors. Canada’s skills training system must be re-examined and modernized in the light of global competition, the changing nature of work, and shifts in the demands of industry. This report examines Federal support for employment skills training in Canada and highlights the disconnect between the design of programs and today’s needs