Overview

The Skills Development Fund offers funding to organizations for innovative projects that address challenges to hiring, training or retaining workers, including apprentices, to drive Ontario's economic growth.

The existing Skills Development Fund supports:

  • projects that address the labour shortage and stimulate growth in key sectors of Ontario’s economy
  • projects that will increase Ontario's long-term economic competitive advantage by creating a sustainable and resilient workforce
  • projects helping people with prior involvement in the criminal justice system, at-risk youth, those with disabilities, Ukrainian newcomers, and others facing barriers to employment

The government is currently developing a capital stream to support the building of new training centres and upgrades to existing facilities. More details will be available soon.

Eligibility

Eligible organizations

The following organizations are eligible to apply to the Skills Development Fund:

  • employers with a presence in Ontario
  • apprenticeship training delivery agents (other than those listed below as being eligible to apply as co-applicants)
  • non-profit organizations with a physical presence in Ontario, including Indigenous Band offices and Indigenous Skills and Employment Training agreement holders
  • professional, industry, employer or sector associations
  • trade unions or union affiliated organizations
  • municipalities, District Social Services Administration Boards, Consolidated Municipal Service Managers, hospitals
  • ministry-approved non-college apprenticeship training delivery agents (TDAs)

The following organizations are eligible to apply to the Skills Development Fund as a co-applicant with one or more of the organizations above:

  • publicly assisted colleges, universities or Indigenous Institutes in Ontario
  • private career colleges registered under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005
  • private universities approved to grant degrees under the Post-Secondary Education Choice and Excellence Act, 2000
  • district school boards

Project requirements

Applications must show how the funding will:

  • help create a resilient workforce by supporting access to the labour market
  • empower workers and job seekers, including full-time students, who face higher barriers of entry and help them find work
  • encourage partnerships across the economy and support innovative ideas and training solutions to address the labour shortage

Apply for project funding

Applications for the most recent funding round closed on January 31, 2023. Successful applicants will be informed on a rolling basis.

To apply, submit your proposal to Transfer Payment Ontario.