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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - DECEMBER 2014
A
T THE BEGINNING
of 2013,
the Ontario government issued
a request to see if anyone in the indus-
try could create something new and
innovative that would help reduce the
high level of youth unemployment and
close the skills gap in the industry. It
has taken a bit of time and a lot of ef-
fort, but we are pleased to announce
that all the hard work is beginning to
pay off!
This problem is not a new one.
How do we get today’s youth involved
and excited to choose a career in the
machine, tool, die and mould indus-
try? The CTMA has always thought
that the best way to showcase our in-
dustry and initiate training is to get
young people onto the shop floor as
soon as possible.
With this in mind, we polled our
member companies to find out if they
would hire a new employee and train
them on their shop floor if the associa-
tion could get some funding directly
back to the employer for doing so. The
response was overwhelmingly posi-
tive!
Our first submission to Ontario’s
Ministry of Economic Development,
Trade & Employment was regarded as
extremely positive, so much so, in fact,
that they asked if we could get some
other industry associations involved
with the initiative. We then contacted
several other industry-related asso-
ciations, and
three of them—
the Canadian
Manufactur-
ers & Export-
ers (CME), the
Ontario Aero-
space Council
(
OAC) and the
Organization
of Canada Nu-
clear Industries
(
OCI)—were
extremely inter-
ested in getting
involved.
As a result
of all this ac-
tivity, we now
have two new
programs, with
funding being provided by the Gov-
ernment of Ontario (under the Youth
Skills Connections – Industry Stream
initiative), that we can move forward
with over the next 12-18 months.
INTRODUCTORY TRADES TRAINING
PROGRAM
This program will be focused
in the Windsor/Essex region that, in
part, will use Valiant Corporation’s
already successful “Earn While You
Learn” program for some of the basic
introductory skills. Youth will then
receive shop-floor training at 25 area
machine, tool,
die and mould
companies.
The CTMAwill
administer the
program and
will also part-
ner with New
Beginnings, a
Windsor-based
youth assis-
tance organiza-
tion. It is our
intention to
provide finan-
cial support to
companies for
their efforts in
creating 25 new
jobs for youth
and training
them on their
shop floors.
The youth training will begin
with a mandatory, three to four week
basic introductory program at the
Valiant Training Centre. The introduc-
tory program will introduce our new
recruits (youth, aged 18 to 29) to shop
safety and some basic skills such as
measuring, how to read a drawing,
etc.). They will then be ready for their
job placements and begin the remain-
ing 28 weeks of their introductory
training and start their new career.
CNC MACHINIST LEVEL 1 & OPEN
DOORS
This is a province-wide initiative
that is being developed by the Ontario
Manufacturing Learning Consortium,
which is comprised of the CME, the
OAC, the CTMA and the OCI. The aim
of this learning program is to provide
80
youth (aged 18 to 29) with an on-
the-job training experience within the
manufacturing sector, specifically so
they can learn CNC machining skills.
The program will include an “Open
Doors” aspect that will help attract
youth to the program and to the manu-
facturing sector. We will also be able
to financially support the participating
companies across Ontario throughout
this 26-week program, during which,
their new employees will learn the
skills needed for a career in running
today’s CNC equipment. Both of these
programs will be monitored through-
out for progress and feedback from
both the youth involved and their
new employers. It is our intention that
once these programs are completed,
we will have given career opportuni-
ties to 100 of Ontario’s youth and will
have helped alleviate some of the skills
shortage problems that our member
companies are currently facing. In ad-
dition, one of the long-term benefits is
that we will have a proven structure in
place to use again for future employ-
ment streams.
CTMA
