The Ontario Skills Development Fund

The Ontario Skills Development Fund is investing $90 million in innovative projects that address the challenges of hiring, training or retaining workers, including apprentices, to stimulate economic growth in Ontario.

The Ontario Skills Development Fund is open now and accepting applications on a first-come, first-served basis until January 31, 2023! This program can fund all or a portion of the costs of high-impact projects with a minimum value of $150,000 or more.

Project Areas

Program Focus Areas:

Retention and capacity-building:
- Employer-led training for workers that are targeted to be laid-off
- Experiential learning, work-integrated learning, job placements, and mentorship
Empower workers who face higher barriers of entry: youth, women, Indigenous peoples, racialized individuals, and persons with disabilities
- Supports and tools to enhance accessibility and accommodation
- Employment services and supports related to mental health
Partnerships for innovative solutions:
- Align education, training, and skills development to enhance the talent development pipeline
- R&D on new innovative approaches for support and training services

Key Employee Groups (*must be the primary project audience):

Workers at risk of job displacement: under skilled employees; individuals with an open work permit that are waiting for their permanent residence status to be finalized
Populations facing barriers to entry: women, youth, people with disabilities, Indigenous peoples, racialized groups

Eligible Expenses

Direct project costs: staffing costs for delivery, direct materials and consumables, program marketing and distribution, employability services and supports…
Administrative costs: capped at 15% of the project budget
Capital costs: new training equipment and digital platforms
Additional: cost of pre-screening candidates, PPE, development of training materials and resources, train-the-trainer resources, training or placement wage subsidies

Eligible Applicants

Includes skilled trades and manufacturing employers in Ontario that have been significantly impacted by labour shortages.
Partnerships are strongly encouraged

Funding Process

Applications must be submitted online via TPON.

Additional Detail

If approved, applicants will be required to:

Identify and report on significant project-related KPIs, including detailed participant information
Engage the services of a third-party auditor if they receive more than $150,000 in funding through the program. A portion of the auditor cost will be covered by the fund and must be included in the budget application

Thinking of applying for financing? Don’t wait! These funds are highly competitive. Contact us today to get started!

Why Ayming?

Our team of experts will take the time to understand your current and future planned projects. We will then align these initiatives to the program in order to provide you with the highest ROI and the highest chance of approval.

We have extensive experience working with Canadian SMEs and have the expertise to properly position and maximize your application to secure your business funding.
We are the first Canadian company to establish a national grants practice.
Our proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) driven database of grants provides live access to thousands of programs, including a custom snapshot of all federal and provincial grants currently available to each company specifically.
Our highly experienced delivery teams boast over 50 + years of combined grants experience and over 200+ years of combined SR&ED experience, meaning you partner with true subject matter experts who are invested in your success.
No risk success-fee remuneration.