Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Provincial Budget: The Skills to Jobs Action Plan
Increasing skills is a central focus of the new provincial budget. The Skills to Jobs Action Plan announced Tuesday will see $1.5 billion invested in training over the next three years. With 70% of new jobs in the coming decade requiring post-secondary education, the money is on formal school-based training.
However, the budget falls short in some key areas. The Wellesley Institute observes that there is almost no investment in housing. While a 2% increase in social assistance benefits is a hopeful start, it will barely keep pace with inflation. Most importantly to working women or women wanting to work, there is no mention child care, neither as an immediate investment or in a long-term commitment.
Read the budget.
See analysis of the 2008 Ontario budget on the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
- Most relevant to the community-based training sector is the Second Career Strategy. The program invests $560 million over the next three years in retraining 20,000 individuals laid off in the past 12 months in a second career. This is a fresh direction for training money, with little funding in recent decades for career changes. The new money will include grants of up to $28,000 or $30,000 to help cover the cost of tuition, living and transportation. A screening process that measures aptitude, goals and financial need will determine those eligible for the grants.
The focus of this initiative appears to be on those in the manufacturing industry who have lost jobs. The Toronto Star reported 77,000 lost jobs in the province’s manufacturing sector from 2001 to 2006. Nationally, 18,300 sewing machine operators (92% of which are female), 6,800 metal fabricators, and 6,100 mechanical assemblers and inspectors lost their jobs during this period, with Ontario as the hardest hit province.
The Star reports that the Second Career Strategy is to "be up and running by June 1 through existing employment counselling services". While the focus is on retraining laid off workers and those with long-term goals, the vague terminology of "unemployed workers" may be useful to non-profits serving more marginalized individuals. The grants may also be helpful to single mothers as Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is reported as saying, "If a sole breadwinner wants to go back (to school) there will be additional help that isn't available under existing programs."
The budget also aims to expand and improve apprenticeships with $75 million over the next three years to increase apprenticeships, to meet a goal of 32,500 new trainees annually by 2011, plus another $45 million for apprenticeship training equipment. While women have been entering apprenticeships in slowly increasing numbers, they remain in traditional and low-paying occupations like child care and hairdressing. Encouraging women to enter non-traditional occupations would meet labour shortages.
Much of the money is for universities and colleges. There is extensive funding of $970 million over three years for educational institutions, mainly universities and colleges, but also "skills training centres and facilities" under the Strategic Skills Training Capital Investments program. New grants will improve access to education with $385 million for books and computers and $27 million to alleviate travel expenses of students in remote areas.
However, the budget falls short in some key areas. The Wellesley Institute observes that there is almost no investment in housing. While a 2% increase in social assistance benefits is a hopeful start, it will barely keep pace with inflation. Most importantly to working women or women wanting to work, there is no mention child care, neither as an immediate investment or in a long-term commitment.
Read the budget.
See analysis of the 2008 Ontario budget on the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Meetings_and_Events
