Federal Budget 2021 & Skills Training

The federal budget, released on April 19th, has a strong focus on creating jobs and growth in Canada’s workforce with investments in skills, training and skilled trades. A summary of highlights follow.

April 27, 2021

Helping Youth and Students Build Job Skills and Connect with Employers

• Budget 2021 proposes to invest $239.8 million in the Student Work Placement Program in 2021-22 to support work-integrated learning opportunities for post-secondary students.
• This funding would increase the wage subsidy available for employers to 75 per cent, up to $7,500 per student, while also increasing employers’ ability to access the program.
• Budget 2021 proposes to invest $109.3 million in 2022-23 for the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy to better meet the needs of vulnerable youth facing multiple barriers to employment, while also supporting over 7,000 additional job placements for youth.
• Budget 2021 proposes to invest $371.8 million in new funding for Canada Summer Jobs in 2022-23 to support approximately 75,000 new job placements in the summer of 2022.

Investing in Skills, Training, and Trades

• Budget 2021 proposes to provide $960 million over three years, beginning in 2021-22, to Employment and Social Development Canada for a new Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program for associations and employers to deliver relevant training to recruit and retain a diverse and inclusive workforce.
• Budget 2021 proposes to provide $470 million over three years, beginning in 2021-22, to Employment and Social Development Canada to establish a new Apprenticeship Service.
  • The Apprenticeship Service would help 55,000 first- year apprentices in construction and manufacturing Red Seal trades connect with opportunities at small and medium-sized employers. Employers would be eligible to receive up to $5,000 for all first-year apprenticeship opportunities to pay for upfront costs such as salaries and training.
  • To boost diversity in the construction and manufacturing Red Seal trades, this incentive will be doubled to $10,000 for employers who hire those underrepresented, including women, racialized Canadians, and persons with disabilities.
• Budget 2021 proposes to invest $298 million over three years, beginning in 2021-22, through Employment and Social Development Canada, in a new Skills for Success program that would help Canadians at all skills levels improve their foundational and transferable skills.
  • The program will fund organizations to design and deliver training to enhance foundational skills such as literacy and numeracy, as well as transferable and soft skills. This could include helping employers deliver training to increase communication and teamwork skills of their employees, or community organizations looking to strengthen basic literacy and numeracy of marginalized groups.

Ensuring Communities Recover Through Skills Training and Workforce Planning

• Budget 2021 proposes to provide $55 million over three years, starting in 2021-22, to Employment and Social Development Canada for a Community Workforce Development Program.
  • The program will support communities to develop local plans that identify high potential growth organizations and connect these employers with training providers to develop and deliver training and work placements to upskill and reskill jobseekers to fill jobs in demand. Funding would be delivered through calls for proposals under two streams:

Helping Workers Transition to New Jobs

• Budget 2021 proposes to provide $250 million over three years, starting in 2021-22, to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada for an initiative to scale-up proven industry-led, third-party delivered approaches to upskill and redeploy workers to meet the needs of growing industries