Skills Development Fund Training Stream

Overview

The Skills Development Fund (SDF) Training Stream 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 SDF Training Stream supports project that:

• develop a resilient workforce by supporting access to the labour market, strengthening efforts to attract, train, and retain workers, and building employer capacity to adapt and innovate
• encourage partnerships and drive innovation through collaborative training initiatives that build local capacity and help communities respond to shocks in labour market conditions and pivot to in-demand, emerging and essential sectors
• support skilled trades and construction labour includes enhancing the adaptability, technical skills, and knowledge of participants to support key industries by working with community partners to help participants develop advanced skill sets
• provide a targeted response to U.S. tariffs as support for in-demand skilled trades and industrial sectors such as automotive and manufacturing

Skills Development Fund Capital Stream

Building on the success of the original training stream, we developed a capital stream to provide funding for capital investments to build, upgrade or convert existing facilities into state-of-the-art training centres. This could include:

• facility renovations
• retrofits
• expansions
• conversions
• repairs
• new building construction

The SDF Capital Stream is intended to support projects that increase training capacity for emerging and in-demand sectors of Ontario’s economy and sectors experiencing labour market challenges.

Eligibility

Eligible organizations

The following organizations are eligible to apply to the SDF Training Stream:

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

The following organizations are eligible to apply to the SDF Training Stream as a co-applicant with 1 or more of the organizations above:

• district school boards
• publicly assisted colleges, universities or Indigenous Institutes in Ontario
• career colleges registered under the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005

Read the application guideline for full details of the eligibility requirements.

Project requirements

Applications must show how the funding will focus on in-demand and key growth target sectors and occupations. Projects must address occupational and regional demands that are responsive to employers’ needs or align with core government priorities.

Apply for project funding

You can submit your application by logging into Transfer Payment Ontario and then clicking on the Service Provider connect icon. You must apply by October 1, 2025 at 11:59 p.m., EDT.

First-time applicants

To access the SDF Training Stream application as a first-time applicant you must:

1. Create a My Ontario Account with Transfer Payment Ontario.
2. Register your organization with Transfer Payment Ontario.
3. Wait for your registration request to be approved (can take up to five business days). Transfer Payment Ontario will email you when your registration request has been approved.
4. Once registered and logged in to TPON, select on the Service Provider Connect icon to locate the SDF Training Stream application.

For more details, refer to the “Application Procedure and Process” section in the application guideline.

If your organization has a My Ontario Account but you are completing the SDF application for the first time

If your organization has an existing My Ontario Account:

1. Create a My Ontario Account with Transfer Payment Ontario.
2. Select “Join an Existing Organization” on the Transfer Payment Ontario website.
3. Once registered and logged in to TPON, select the Service Provider Connect icon to locate the SDF Training Stream application.

For more details, refer to the “Application Procedure and Process” section in the application guideline.

If you have applied on behalf of your organization before

Once logged in to TPON, select the Service Provider Connect icon to locate the SDF Training Stream application.

After you apply

Applications will be assessed based on transparent, consistent and measurable evaluation criteria set out in the SDF Training Stream application guideline. All applicants will be notified whether their application is successful or unsuccessful.