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:

  • 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, racialized persons and Indigenous peoples, those with disabilities, and others facing barriers to employment

Skills Development Fund Capital stream

We developed a capital stream to help build and upgrade new and existing training facilities.

Eligibility

Eligible organizations

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

  • employers in Ontario, other than the Educational Organizations listed below
  • 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/industry/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 one 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. This guideline reflects feedback from previous rounds.

Project requirements

Applications must show how the funding will:

  • support and help develop a resilient workforce by supporting access into the labour market, and/or retention and capacity-building for employers
  • encourage partnerships across the economy and support innovative ideas and training solutions
  • support in-demand sectors that align with core government objectives such as manufacturing, technology, and construction labour to support increasing the housing supply in the province

Apply for project funding

Apply now by submitting your application to Transfer Payment Ontario.

You must apply by October 11, 2024, at 11:59 p.m, EDT.

To access the Skills Development Fund (SDF) application:

  1. Register an account with TPON and register or join an organization.
  2. Select the Service Provider (SP) Connect icon to locate the SDF application. 
    the Service Provider (SP) Connect icon Logo

For more details, see Section 4 — “Application and Selection Processes” in the application guidelines.

All applicants will be notified whether their application is successful or unsuccessful.

After you apply

Applications will be assessed based on transparent, consistent, and measurable evaluation criteria set out in the SDF Training Stream application guideline.

Successful applicants will be informed on a rolling basis.