Ontario | Job training excludes half of unemployed

Making employment supports available to all job-seekers would level the playing field and help the province’s neediest escape poverty, says Ontario’s social services review commission, headed by Frances Lankin and Munir Sheikh.

The commission’s final report, to be released in June, will also include recommendations on how to improve the administration of the province’s two welfare programs, Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program. And it will look at how to ensure that welfare rates are adequate, sustainable and fair.

On the question of employment supports, there are already signs the commission is moving toward expanding access.

Economist Don Drummond called for an overhaul of provincial employment programs in his recent review of Ontario’s public services.

And last month, the City of Toronto unveiled a new workforce development strategy to better link employers to job-seekers.

“Large numbers of residents are not only excluded from vital financial benefits (available through EI) but also face unnecessary obstacles obtaining the training that can help them advance,” says Toronto’s Working As One report, endorsed by city council in March…

Source:

Read More @ Toronto News: Ontario’s job training shuts out half of unemployed – thestar.com.

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