The ACTEW Blog

The rollout of Employment Service implementation is very likely to begin this fall, according to new MTCU ADM, Laurie LeBlanc. This and other announcements were delivered at the August 18 meeting of the Service Advisory Delivery Group and MTCU.

Employment Service Implementation

The implementation will likely occur before the November 18 SDAG meeting. There will be a six-month transition as agencies exit the EO system/shut down, or transition into the new delivery model.

All agencies that participated in October 2008 capacity survey will be notified about their situation at the same time. The implementation itself will occur in stages, as some agencies will require more considerations.

Agencies that will not be funded will receive a telephone call from an MTCU representative. MTCU is committed to ensuring that agencies hear the news from the ministry rather than from other sources first. Such agencies will have six months to shut down their services.

Agencies that hold multiple contracts will receive one communication regarding all contracts, although those agencies that have services in more than one region may receive multiple communications.

The ADM is committed to clear communication regarding the transition and information sessions will be arranged. Directly after the implementation announcement, SDAG will be contacted for a teleconference meeting in which we will receive more information.

LeBlanc said she was not in a position to share information about how much change can be expected.

In other news from the meeting…

• The Managers Forum, proposed by OAYEC/First Work, the agency lead, as a November event, will be rescheduled to Spring 2010 as the timing was not seen by MTCU as conducive to the EO implementation, LeBlanc reported.

• Funding ranges in the EO Employment Service funding model have been increased by 5%, reported Patti Redmond and Sue Forrester, in response to concerns raised by SDAG. However, MTCU cannot provide a cost of living increase that SDAG also requested because there is a limited pot of money from which to fund services.

• MTCU reports that the 2nd Career Strategy is a very successful program meeting its targets, with more than 10,000 people now retraining. Next steps for the program include supporting training graduates in employment, integrating employers, and conducting a client analysis.
  
  Among numbers released by MTCU on the 2nd Career Strategy, 49% of recipients are women, a pleasing outcome for a worker population in need of training. Fifty-nine percent of recipients attend private career colleges and another 37% go to public colleges, which MTCU explained is the result of individual decisions made by recipients.
  
  However only 6% of all the strategy recipients are non-EI eligible. $195M over 5 years from the federal government was earmarked for such workers by the Labour Market Agreement. Can the 2nd Career Strategy be adapted to serve job-seekers without EI or Reachback benefits? MTCU explained that it is hard to serve the non-eligible because 2nd Career Strategy is dependent on the recipient having some form of income.
  

• Good news for some marginalized workers is the $90M over two years that MTCU announced in the 2009 budget for literacy and basic skills training. This sector has had flatlined funding for 11 years, so the funding comes as a great relief to a system that served 48,500 learners in 2007-08. MTCU announced that it has funded 11 LBS provincial network, umbrella and support agencies.

A number of items raised by SDAG, many of which are very important to ACTEW members and were raised in ACTEW's recent focus groups, were tabled for another meeting. These are:
• the role of specialized services;
• severence pay for staff in services and agencies that must wind down;
• the MTCU communication strategy; and
• a response from MTCU to the letter sent by SDAG members in early April.

Labels: ACTEW_Activities, Meetings_and_Events, MTCU_Updates