As the COVID-19 crisis endures, an increasing number of Canadians are having trouble finding work in their designated fields. On top of this, the government is becoming increasingly dependent on Ontario’s post-secondary institutions to produce graduates in fields essential to the province’s socio-economic recovery – including healthcare workers, service workers, construction managers, business professionals, and so on.
This is easier said than done, however, at a time where schools are still facing the financial strains of lower enrollment and program withdrawals, along with the additional costs of PPE and other COVID-19 safety expenses.
The Ontario budget, released in November 2020, invests $59.5 million to expand micro-credential retraining over three years. Provincial leaders say it will help graduates enhance and upgrade their skills to find new employment. Moreover, it will assist post-secondary institutions like George Brown College (GBC) in the costs of developing fast-tracked programs to produce graduates in necessary fields and skill sets essential to the province’s economy.
“We are looking at programs that are under twelve weeks, directed at a very specific sort of skill,” says Dr. Adrienne Galway, special advisor to the president at GBC.
“Because there’s so many displaced workers as a result of COVID-19, the government is thinking, ‘What can people come in and do in under twelve weeks that bridges some sort of skill gap that the industry has identified, and then gets people back working again?’”
This funding will be used to “create an online portal of micro-credential training opportunities, develop new micro-credential programs, launch a public awareness campaign and to develop a virtual passport that creates opportunities for people in the programs to pursue further learning,” said Ontario Colleges in a November press release.
It was also announced that students enrolled in qualified programs will be eligible to get student assistance in the form of OSAP.
Dr. Galway says that the rest of the money will be dispersed among post-secondary institutions through a competitive application-based process and that GBC is awaiting further details regarding enrollment procedures.
“Typically, how it would work is that they would put out something saying that the provincial government is looking for proposals to develop micro-credentials in skill shortage areas, and then the schools would get some funding to develop,” says Galway.
As Ontario continues to manage the challenges created by COVID-19 through the Ontario Onwards Action Plan, GBC eagerly awaits the announcement of further policies regarding the micro-credentials fund. Dr. Galway says that GBC is still in the beginning stages of thinking what these programs will look like, but that policies should begin to roll out soon.
“In these challenging times, it’s more important than ever that our governments, employers and post-secondary institutions work together to prepare the highly skilled workers our economy needs, and support the recovery of our province,” says Dr. Galway.
