Colleges very disappointed to be shut out of trades training announcement

THUNDER BAY, ON, March 22, 2023 – Ontario colleges are very disappointed to be shut out of the Ontario government’s funding announcement  for new skilled trades training centres.

“This is hugely disappointing for our students, our college and employers in our community,” said Confederation College President, Kathleen Lynch. “Colleges provide many of the best opportunities to prepare students for careers in the skilled trades and should have been a major part of this announcement.”

The Ontario government announced it is investing $224 million to build and upgrade private training centres and will spend $75 million over the next three years on operations and programming at the centres.

Colleges play a dominant role in skills training, including the delivery of over 80 percent of the in-class portion of apprenticeship training. 

The province faces an escalating shortage of qualified people in key sectors, including the skilled trades, technology and health care. The province estimates nearly 300,000 jobs are going unfilled at this time.

Colleges are urging the government to improve and expand existing infrastructure and work with the sector to support an collaborative approach to skills training that helps more people enter the trades to find rewarding careers.

“As the major provider of trades training, investing in our existing aging facilities to create modern infrastructure makes good economic sense,” Lynch said.  We want to be able to offer our students the best possible learning environment.  That means Ontario should be investing in the high-quality trades and apprentices programming at our colleges.”

-30-

Confederation College has been serving the citizens of northwestern Ontario since 1967 meeting the educational needs of students in a catchment area of some 550,000 square kilometres. Along with its main campus in Thunder Bay, Confederation College has seven regional sites located in Dryden, Fort Frances, Greenstone, Kenora, Marathon, Sioux Lookout and Red Lake, as well as a growing Distance Education division.

Confederation College delivers exceptional education and training to an average of 4,800 combined full- and part-time students per year and currently has a total of 600 full- and part-time employees. Confederation’s regional economic impact and contribution is valued at $703.3 million annually.

For more information, please contact: 

Scott Hobbss, Communications Consultant 
Office: (807) 475- | Cell: (807) 621-5265 
[email protected]