Skills Ontario receives over $5-million in funding for additional mobile learning units

July 26, 2023 – The Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training, and Skills Development announced $5.4 million in funding for the Skills Ontario Trades & Tech Truck program. This funding will go to the creation of three 12-metre-long Trades & Tech trailers.

Trades & Tech Truck is equipped with activities and simulators focusing on the following skilled trade sectors and industry: construction, industrial, automotive, and technology. These activities include welding, electrical work, heavy machinery, pneumatics, fire alarm systems, tool exploration, virtual auto painting and tire and brake work. Since 2022, the Trades & Tech Truck has reached over 45,000 people through school visits, conferences and other events.

“By 2025, one in five jobs in Ontario will be in the skilled trades,” said Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. “That’s why our government will continue to invest in cutting-edge programs that give students the chance to experience the 144 trades […] available to them.”

Last month, the government announced apprenticeship registrations increased by 24 per cent in the last year – from 21,971 to 27,319 – as more people decide to pursue rewarding, well-paying careers in the industry. This increase, including a 28 per cent jump among women, follows more than $1 billion in investment in the skilled trades over three years, along with the launch of the new government agency, Skilled Trades Ontario.

“I recently announced that starting in September of 2024, all high school students will take at least one technology education course to create pathways to exciting jobs of the future,” said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education, in a press release. “Ontario’s new mobile tech classroom will support 150,000 students every year in learning those critical skills that will set them up for success in a good-paying job.”

The province helped launch the Trades & Tech Truck pilot program in 2022. The first truck reached over 40,000 students and young people, visiting more than 50 events across the province from Toronto to Ottawa and Thunder Bay.

This project is funded through the government’s Skills Development Fund, an over $700 million initiative, which supports ground-breaking programs that connect jobseekers with the skills and training they need to find well-paying careers close to home.