Investment in provincial pre-apprenticeship program opening doors to careers
Ontario’s Pre-Apprenticeship Training Program is receiving a large infusion of funding from the provincial government.
On Wednesday, Labour Minister Monte McNaughton announcing another $5-million at an event in London, expanding annual funding to $28-million.
Between March 2020 and April 2021, the program offered a free opportunity for 1,780 people with no experience in skilled trades to learn basic skills in preparation for an apprenticeship.
“The cooking and baking trades, arborists, construction trades, it really is endless. We need people and parents to know there are 140 different trades to choose from,” explained McNaughton.
After years on a carousel of temporary jobs, a Sarnia father says the program has led to a rewarding career.
“My life has totally changed since I entered this program,” says 40-year old Hopeton Powell. “I always wanted a steady job. A career. But every time I got a job it would finish, or there’d be a shortage of work.”
As he lay bricks inside the Ontario Masonry Training Centre in London, Powell explained how 16 weeks in the program gave him a foundation of skills to begin his formal apprenticeship.
“First day the foreman asked can you do this? Can you do that? And I could do it because I learned those skills in the pre-apprentice course,” he recalls.
In Ontario, one out over every three journeypersons in the skilled trades is over 55 years old.
McNaughton believes the program can attract new workers and combat the region’s lagging labour participation rate.
Brick by brick, Powell hopes to eventually build his own masonry company and continue to show his children the value of skilled trades careers.
“When I pass with my kids I’m able to say, ‘See that building? I worked on it!’”
Details about the pre-apprenticeship program can be found by contacting Employment Ontario.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
What we know so far about the victims of the Buffalo mass shooting
A former police officer, the 86-year-old mother of Buffalo's former fire commissioner, and a grandmother who fed the needy for decades were among those killed in a racist attack by a gunman on Saturday in a Buffalo grocery store. Three people were also wounded.

White 'replacement theory' fuels racist attacks
A racist ideology seeping from the internet's fringes into the mainstream is being investigated as a motivating factor in the supermarket shooting that killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York. Most of the victims were Black.
Ontario driver who killed woman and three daughters sentenced to 17 years in prison
A driver who struck and killed a woman and her three young daughters nearly two years ago 'gambled with other people's lives' when he took the wheel, an Ontario judge said Monday in sentencing him to 17 years behind bars.
CREA reports home sales down in April as mortgage rates rise
Increasing mortgage rates slowed home sales in April from the frenzied pace they started the year at, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Monday.
Canadian WWII flying ace 'Stocky' Edwards dies
One of Canada's most successful Second World War flying aces, James "Stocky" Edwards of Comox, B.C., has died at the age of 100.
Royal tour of Canada: Here's Prince Charles and Camilla's itinerary
Canadians welcome Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, as they embark on a three-day, travel-filled visit starting Tuesday. Between what senior government officials, Canadian Heritage, Rideau Hall and Clarence House have released, here's everything we know about the royal tour and its itinerary.
Amber Heard testifies Johnny Depp assaulted her on their honeymoon
'Aquaman' actor Amber Heard told jurors on Monday that Johnny Depp slammed her against a wall and wrapped a shirt around her neck during their 2015 honeymoon on the Orient Express.
McDonald's to sell its Russian business, try to keep workers
More than three decades after it became the first American fast food restaurant to open in the Soviet Union, McDonald's said Monday that it has started the process of selling its business in Russia, another symbol of the country's increasing isolation over its war in Ukraine.
Canada seeing some baby formula shortages, but store brands, interim policy on other imports helping
A major infant formula recall by the U.S. manufacturer of Similac has exacerbated ongoing pandemic-related supply issues for some Canadian retailers, according to the Retail Council of Canada, while other stores have generally been able to keep shelves stocked, with any shortages mostly temporary.