city building : Innovation + Job News

When the minority Liberal government unveiled its draft provincial budget last week, the document lasted barely a day before being trashed: the opposition parties refused to support the government, and a snap—though widely anticipated—election was called.

Ontarians will go to the polls on June 12, but they already know a great deal about what the Liberals will be running on: that short-lived budged doubles as a convenient campaign platform. And one of its centrepiece proposals is a major employment initiative. The other parties will likely follow with their own jobs-creation strategies (we'll cover those as they are released) but in the meantime, here are the highlights of the Liberal proposal.

The Liberal government's plan centres on a $2.5 billion "jobs and prosperity fund," a new 10-year initiative that will focus on helping businesses develop internationally, and become more productive. It will also include grants to help attract new major businesses to Toronto. The money will be allocated to several sectors, including $40 million a year for food and beverage manufacturing and $20 million over four years for the increased acquisition of health products. This will be combined with other initiatives, like ongoing efforts to establish a cooperative capital markets regulator (so far British Columbia and the federal government have joined the talks).

Though NDP leader Andrea Horwath announced that her party would be voting against the budget, she specified that this reflected a general distrust of the Liberal government rather than objections to the budget itself, which is widely regarded as NDP-friendly. For their part the Progressive Conservatives characterized the Liberal plan as "corporate welfare" and say they will create jobs by lowering payroll and corporate taxes.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Ministry of Finance

Last week, the provincial government announced that it would be be investing an extra $3 million over the next two years in its pre-apprenticeship training program, creating spots for 200 new participants. (A total of 1,100 pre-apprentices are participating in the program this year.) The impetus: the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games, and the massive infrastructure projects that are underway to prepare for those Games.

"it's something that's going to build a stronger workforce for us in the years ahead," said Brad Duguid, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, while announcing the program expansion, "but it also provides young people in our province with an opportunity for a new career."

The pre-apprenticeship training program is designed to help would-be apprentices prepare and develop the trade-specific skills they need in order to be eligible for full-fledged apprenticeships. An individual participant may be involved in the program—which is free, and also covers program-related related costs such as textbooks—for up to a year. Pre-apprentices may find themselves taking safety courses, doing in-school training, and in short-term work placements, depending on their goals and needs.

Because of the Pan Am Games' many infrastructure projects, skilled construction workers are needed in large numbers; the hope is this program expansion will provide participants with on-the-job learning opportunities, while helping to ensure those projects are delivered on schedule.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities

Every city and region has its challenges and often the best authorities—both on the nature of the problems and the value of potential solutions—lies within the local community, the residents who encounter these issues first-hand. That's the principle underlying communityBUILD, an ongoing collaboration between VentureLAB, a York Region innovation accelerator; York University; and United Way York Region. It is "is a partnership from three very different organizations," says VentureLAB project lead Heather Crosbie, "and the partnership itself breeds quite a unique approach to what we're tying to do, which is tackle York Region social issues through the lens of social entrepreneurship."

That ongoing project has an upcoming major event: communityBUILD Mash-UP, a two day intensive workshop to help better understand some specific challenges within York Region, and to spur local social entrepreneurs to develop innovative approaches to tackling those issues. By the end of the Mash-Up, some participants will be selected for a prize pack that includes mentoring, office space, and other in-kind support.

With the help of the United Way, two specific social problems were identified: food insecurity and youth unemployment. The goal of the Mash-Up is to spend "two intense days to work on solutions to two of these 'grand challenges,'" explains Crosbie. 

One of the features that makes this event unique, she says, is "you can apply to be a collaborator, to join an existing team, as well as pitch as a team or an existing early-stage project." Applications for partipating in either capacity are being accepted online until March 8. A panel of local experts will winnow down the list of applicants; those selected will participate in the two-day workshop, which runs March 27-28.

After that, says Crosbie, there are "three hurdles to get over" before the winners are selected: whether the proposal is relevant to one of the "grand challenges"; whether the team proposing an initiative "has experience in either living the reality or working on the problem"; and whether everyone else participating in the Mash-Up sees merit in the proposal.

The workshop will begin with everyone pitching their ideas and it'll be up to the Mash-Up participants to select which of those ideas seem most promising. Those will be the ones that teams will work on over the course of the two days—developing business plans, rollout schedules, and the like. A panel of four or five entrepreneurs will determine the "viability, scalability, and sustainability" of the fleshed-out proposals, and select the ultimate winner.

It's one of many new initiatives the organizing partners hope to develop over time. "The long-term objective," says Crosbie, "is to build out an ecosystem of social entrepreneurs tackling social issues in York Region specifically."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Heather Crosbie, VentureLAB project lead

A new study examining the state of foreign investment in the Toronto region—Roadmap to Revizalization—includes some important calls to action for spurring local economic development. The Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA), a public-private partnership, released the study last  month. Among its members: all the municipalities and regions that make up the GTA, along with private and public sector partners. 

"Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is accelerating as a key driver of economic growth," reports the Roadmap. "Over the period 1990 to 2011, FDI globally grew 75 per cent faster than Gross Domestic Product (GDP). When foreign firms open up shop here they create jobs and capital investment, and generate tax revenue that feeds back into the Canadian economy."

There are also knock-on effects: an influx of talented workers, and a more dynamic, innovative economic environment in general. And crucially, these benefits spill across municipal borders: it's not a question of pitting one city in the region against another in an attempt to attract a new office HQ, for instance, but understanding that as soon as one foreign investor sets up here, the benefits will be distributed, which is why the report's key conclusion is so crucial.

"The GTA currently lacks effective regional coordination," writes the Roadmap, in attracting FDI. Multiple organizations and levels of government all try and tackle this issue, but they are not working in concert, and in some cases find themselves at odds. If the Toronto region is to strengthen its capacity to attract foreign investment, in short, we need to start pulling together in a coordinated and organized way.

"The Toronto region is the primary engine for FDI attraction in Ontario and in Canada, representing 52 per cent and 24 per cent respectively of all FDI activity," the Roadmap explains. We perform relatively well compared to other North American regions, but globally we are ranked 18th of 27 cities. And this, says the report, has a lot to do with how we pitch ourselves.

It isn't that the Toronto region lacks the relevant, appealing qualities foreign investors look for: "This performance is at odds with the Toronto region’s relative attractiveness as a destination for foreign direct investment. For example, on a global basis the Toronto region ranks high in terms of key FDI drivers such as size, location, demographics, economic growth, skilled labour, infrastructure, ease of doing business and the provincial and federal fiscal policy environment."

So how do we improve? Among the recommendations: 

• Increased resources in attracting FDI. (The study found that Toronto spends considerably less, per capita, on attracting foreign investment than many other comparable cities.)
   
• Coordinated, clearly planned out strategies which give all stakeholders defined roles in attracting FDI. This should include agreement on strategically selected "target sectors and markets"—ideally about 9 or 10 of them.

• More extensive private sector involvement, which is lower here compared to many other regions.

"The Toronto region is significantly underperforming relative to its potential," the report concludes. "The opportunity is significant, and the ROI is clear. But money alone will not be enough to fix the current situation. Significantly improved collaboration and coordination of efforts across a broad range of organizations is needed."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source:Roadmap to Revitalization (report)

Found in 2012, the Youth Social Innovation Capital Fund (YSI) has been offering micro-loans, as well as non-financial resources, to help support social entrepreneurs as they develop their ventures. An impact investment fund, YSI focuses on what's called a triple bottom line: ventures that generate social and environmental returns, as well as financial ones.

YSI is currently accepting applications for a new round of potential investment recipients; the deadline to submit applications is nearing. However, you have until February 28 to make your case.

One previous recipient provides a case study for the kinds of projects YSI aims to support: a Toronto organic farm called Fresh City Farms. The farm grows and delivers pesticide-free produce to Torontonians, but was facing several barriers to growth. They received a $10,000 loan from YSI in 2013, which enabled them to both improve their packaging and develop a new online ordering system to reduce costs and improve their customers' experience.

In order to be eligible, YSI applicants must be between 18 and 25, and must already be operating a social enterprise, either not-for-profit or profit. Successful applicants will receive between $1,000 and $10,000 in investment, along with mentorship and other forms of support.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Syeda Zaki, Finance Director, Youth Social Innovation Capital Fund

The Global City Indicators Facility, a research program based at the University of Toronto, has just released a study looking at the Toronto region's competitiveness and prosperity. The goal: offer a regional perspective on economic development opportunities in the GTA. The challenge: it's very hard to actually know how we are placed, as a region, because the Toronto region is a patchwork of municipalities, and there isn't an established, consistent way of reporting and sharing relevant data.

The Toronto region is made up of dozens of municipalities, with different governing structures. Some are single-tier, like Toronto, which operates as its own city. Others are dual-tier, for instance Ajax, which falls under Durham Region. This patchwork of systems makes it very difficult to aggregate data for the region and conduct the kind of analyses we need, the report found.

"The uneven distribution of characteristics across [a] region," reports the study, "can point to areas where improvements can be made to increase the competitiveness of the region as  a whole." For instance, one map the study put together "shows how commercial and industrial areas are distributed across municipalities, which can point to strategic locations for international firms and also places where local governments might want to make land available to improve employment opportunities."

That's precisely the sort of analysis we need to be able to do more of, if we are to grow as a region, rather than fall prey to intra-regional fights—as sometimes happens when various GTA municipalities vie, for instance, to be the home of a new corporate head office.

In the absence of this robust data, it's difficult to fully assess the local picture and identify opportunities for regional enhancement, much less compare the Toronto region to economic activity elsewhere: "The Pilot has demonstrated the need for a coordinated data platform for municipalities in Ontario," the study says.

As a next step, the Global City Indicators Facility is calling for the creation of an Ontario Municipal Open Data Platform, which "will become a strategic base of data and information to guide policy on trade and investment and build globally competitive cities in Ontario."  It would pull information from all levels of government and relevant agencies—ranging from Statistics Canada, to provincial ministries, to local municipalities, to regional initiatives like the Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative (OMBI)—and use it to generate widely available data sets that would allow for open, and sophisticated, regional economic analysis.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Data, Boundaries, Competitiveness: The Toronto Urban Region in Global Context (Study)
Correction: We originally mistyped OMBI as OMB, which refers to an entirely different agency. We regret the error.

"Toronto Public Library provides free and equitable access to services which meet the changing needs of Torontonians. The Library preserves and promotes universal access to a broad range of human knowledge, experience, information and ideas in a welcoming and supportive environment."

That's the mission statement for Toronto's library system, and they want you to take the "changing" part of it seriously.

Though many of us think primarily of books—the old-fashioned paper-and-ink variety—when it comes to the library, TPL has been exploring digital technology for some time, and ramping up those digital forays in recent years. They've already got robust e-book and digital magazine programs, and are exploring a Netflix-like video streaming service as well. For years, and especially for Torontonians who can't afford computers or internet connections, they've provided online access. Their latest venture: two digital innovation hubs—one at the Toronto Reference Library, and one at the soon-to-be-open Fort York branch.

Among the tools available there, and creating a lot of excitement: 3D printers.

The two hubs are a combination of maker space and digital media labs; also available will be HD cameras and green screens, computers with video editing and design software, and classes on subjects like Photoshop and web design.

As with those traditional print books, the goal is to make learning accessible to all Torontonians. "These are critical literacy skills that people are going to need to move forward," says Paul Trumphour, access and information manager for the Reference Library.

By offering these new technologies, and helping people understand how to use them, the library is supporting another kind of literacy—and one that is becoming increasingly vital to employment and creative enterprises. He cites, for instance, how many more men than women still enrol in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs, saying that "one of the ways to encourage young women to do this is to provide opportunities outside of the curricular experience… we think that's a role the library can play and should play."

About those 3D printers: staff will be on hand to help, and the library will be running workshops in how to design 3D objects. There are two at the Reference Library: one will be first come first served, and the other you can book in advance for a block of up to two hours. As for how they'll manage the inevitable waiting list, Trumphour chuckles, "we'll have to figure that out as we go."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Paul Trumphour, Access and Information Manager, Toronto Reference Library

In the waning days of 2013, when most of us were distracted by holiday shopping and trips back home, some promising information was released about a new set of economic programs for southern Ontario. The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) announced details of the Southern Ontario Prosperity Initiatives (SOPIs), which collectively will provide $530 million in the region.

There are four separate initiatives that have been launched:

• Business Innovation, for young ventures. This program targets new enterprises, providing them with business support to help increase their odds of success in the marketplace. Funding in this stream is available for non-profits that offer support to new businesses, early stage businesses that have less than 50 employees, and angel investor networks.

• Business Growth and Productivity, for established businesses. This stream of funding aims to help companies that are already developed expand further and create new jobs. Small- and medium-sized enterprises with at least 15 employees, and non-profits that provide productivity support services to those enterprises, are eligible.

• Commercialization Partnerships Initiative, which targets collaborative projects between businesses and researchers. This program aims to help major institutions work closely with business partners to help translate research innovations into market success. Among those eligible: post-secondary institutions and industry associations.

• Regional Diversification Initiative, which targets underdeveloped sectors of the regional economy. This stream of funding is open to non-profits with an economic development focus, and that have private sector or community partnerships that work on capacity-building initiatives.

For more information, visit FedDev Ontario.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: FedDev

Like many municipalities, ones in Ontario are starting to play a larger role in energy production and distribution. One local company, PowerStream, is owned by three such municipalities together: Barrie, Markham, and Vaughan. And like many of these smaller companies, the focus is increasingly on using smart grid technology and renewable energy sources to lower the environmental burdens of providing power. A few weeks ago, PowerStream unveiled a new micro grid demonstration project in an attempt to further explore those possibilities.

Smart grid technology is essentially a way of fine-tuning the collection and distribution of power across a network, by working with real-time, fine-grained information about energy demands, sending power to where it is most needed and in some cases bringing power sources on- and off-line dynamically, to meet changing demands. PowerStream's micro grid works in the same way, but on a much smaller scale than the provincial power system—it's scaled to meet local needs, ideally with local, renewable power sources. It also latches into the provincial grid, drawing power from it when needed, and sending power to the grid if it's producing more than it requires.

PowerStream's micro grid demonstration project is installed at its head office in Vaughan. John Mulrooney, director of smart grid technologies for PowerStream, explains the project in a video guide as: "a two-phase initiative that will evaluate the micro grid's effectiveness as an alternative energy supplier for PowerStream's head office. It will test the ability to utilize different power sources and storage while delivering safe, reliable service."

In the first phase, power—coming from solar panels, wind turbines, and natural gas generator, and stored in three different types of batteries—will be used to provide electricity for the building's  lighting, a/c system, and refrigeration, plus charging stations for their electric vehicles. The goal in this first phase is to test how well the system operates when it's disconnected from the provincial grid. The second phase will see new sources of power generation added into the mix; the goal at that point will be to test the grid's ability to feed power into the provincial network.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: PowerStream

Immigration isn't just a matter of navigating clearly defined legal and employment constraints: getting your paperwork in order, re-credentialling, and so on. There is also a host of soft skills—cultural conventions and communication best practices, social insight and networking capacity—that anyone needs to successfully make a transition to a new country.

Helping skilled immigrants do just that: the mentors of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC), who assisted 1,000 immigrants this past year via a program called The Mentoring Partnership. Mentors offer sector-specific advice (mentees and mentors are matched by occupation), but also help with the ephemeral, essential task of getting settled in a new work environment.

Those mentors and their successes were celebrated recently, at an annual reception.

Indra Maharjan was a mentee with the program in 2010; he returned in 2013 to act as a mentor to two new skilled immigrants; he was one of the program participants honoured at TRIEC's reception. Like many new immigrants Maharjan had done a lot of research and planning when it came to logistical issues, but it was the Mentoring Partnership, he says, that "helped me to get lots of other information which is not publicly available: how to deal with people, how to make sure your boss is happy," and other similar matters.

The Partnership helped him learn about Canadian work culture and communication styles, which allowed him to find and flourish in new work more quickly. "The crux of success lies in how you communicate with people," Maharjan says, and there's is no better guide to that than another person who can answer real-life questions about it, and help you work through situations as they arise. Years later he and his mentor are still in touch.

This year Maharjan's two mentees each found jobs within two months, he says with pride. "Most people are hardworking, but if they can't express themselves that creates a bottleneck."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Indra Maharjan, The Mentoring Partnership
Photo: Camilla Pucholt

Here's something we could all use less of: gridlock. A political lightening rod and increasing limit on daily routines in Toronto, traffic congestion eats up our time, not to mention reserves of patience and good humour. Now one UofT student thinks she's found a way to help tame congestion, by getting the lights at individual intersections to communicate directly with one another.

Samah El-Tantawy was inspired by the awful state of the roads both here in Toronto and in Cairo, where she grew up. Her traffic-management system formed the core of her graduate work (El-Tantawy earned her PhD in civil engineering in 2012), and is based on innovations in artificial intelligence research.

Right now, El-Tantawy explains, there are three types of traffic-management systems operating in Toronto:

• Set times for light changes, based on prior calculations using historical records; these are optimized, but don't adapt to the circumstances of any given moment.
• Actuated controls: detectors under the pavement which send calls to traffic lights, so those lights can change based on immediate conditions. The shortcoming with these is that they are operating "as if blind," El-Tantaway says. Since they only have inputs from vehicles in one direction, they don't work based on the state of the intersection or road network as a whole.
• Adaptive controls that are optimized in real time, based on traffic approaching an intersection; this system exists at about 300 intersections in Toronto. The main limitation with this system is that it works via a centralized command system, and thus requires a substantial communications network. (Any failure in that centralized system has, correspondingly, a huge impact on the whole network.)

The system El-Tantawy has developed is based on individualized intersection control, and comes with lower capital costs and risks of interruption compared to the adaptive control system. As she explains it, "each intersection sends and receives information from its neighbours, and each of the neighbours do this in a cascading fashion." Essentially, the lights at each intersection communicate with the ones at the connecting intersections, and this allows the lights at each intersection to change based on what those neighbouring lights are doing.

Unlike scheduled cascading traffic lights (where you hit a series of greens in a row if traffic conditions allow you to pace yourself just right), this system includes real-time responses to changing traffic conditions. "Each one decides for itself," El-Tantawy says, "but it considers what decisions what might be taken by the neighbours by having a model for each neighbour, and that model is built based on receiving information every second. They are actually deciding simultaneously."

According to El-Tantawy's simulation models, her traffic management system—called Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning for Integrated Network of Adaptive Traffic Signal Controllers (or MARLIN-ATSC)—can reduce delays by up to 40 per cent, and yield a 15-25 per cent savings in travel time. It can also have environmental knock-off effects—up to a 30 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions, since vehicles are spending less time on the road and travelling more efficiently when they do.

City of Toronto staff are aware of El-Tantawy's work, and she's hoping it will eventually be implemented in some intersections here. She needs to conduct field tests first, however, and is currently looking for quieter areas suitable for pilot projects next summer.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Samah El-Tantawy

A year-old partnership between Toronto incubator MaRS and Microsoft just got bigger.

According to a new deal, known as Biz Spark, start-up entrepreneurs will be getting direct and indirect development help from the tech giant.

"Startups will get access to software and tools provided under the Biz Spark program," says Ryan Poissant, a MaRs advisor in IT, communication and entertainment. "Select MaRS clients will also benefit from connecting with experienced product development teams and access to Microsoft's deep industry networks of partners and customers."

Poissant describes the potential beneficiaries of this deal as being companies who figure they can benefit from "Microsoft's tools and industry verticals."

"Microsoft brings a deep understanding of design and development tools and practices as well as expertise in building scalable, enterprise grade applications that reside in the cloud," Poissant says. "This expertise complements the MaRS platform that helps companies move efficiently from the discovery phase to product/market fit through a combination of advisory services, partnerships, access to capital and networks."

MaRs stands for Medical and Related Sciences, though since it was named, its purview has expanded into unrelated fields.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Ryan Poissant

A trip to Ghana in 2009 by a few self-funded Scadding Court-area teens is paying off, and in the process offering an excellent example of how rich countries can learn from poor ones.

"What we saw there were all kinds of rusted out containers where people were selling chicken, cutting hair," says Scadding Court Community Centre head Kevin Lee. "We came back to Toronto, there's so much under-utilized public space, like sidewalks that are three times the size they need to be, and on Dundas Street, economically depressed, with no eyes on the street…."

So now, there are 19 containers on Dundas just west of Bathurst, and a charette at the Scadding Court Community Centre on Tuesday brought together architects, designers, city planners, public health workers and community members to show and tell how that might be expanded into the city's first container mall.

The first container went up three years ago, very shortly after the group, of which Lee was a part, got back from Ghana. At first, it was just food, but it soon morphed into retail, including Stin Can, a bike repair shop run by two 19-year-olds, graduates of the Biz Start program who, according to Lee, were able to start up with just $2,000. (You may want to think about stopping by their container instead of your usual local.)

"What we're trying to do," Lee says, "is establish a template for the city of Toronto in terms of economic development at the grassroots level. Economic development doesn’t just mean trying to attract Google to move their head office to Toronto."

The city just found $80,000 to buy two or three new containers, according to Councillor Adam Vaughan, in whose ward the containers sit. Now they’re just waiting for a council vote on approvals, which could come as early as this week.

"You put 10 bureaucrats around a table, all it takes is one to say no to scrap things," Vaughan says from the floor of the charette. He says the original idea came from a private company who wanted to set up some containers on Queen West. Heritage Toronto nixed it, according to Vaughan, saying the only spot they could use was the parking lot at Queen and Phoebe, so the company dropped the idea.

The charette, and the community centre's central involvement, is a way, Vaughan hopes, to circumvent the usual impediments to Toronto ever having nice things. "What we're looking for here is a way to say yes."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Kevin Lee, Adam Vaughan

The provincial government recently launched a new fund geared specifically to the music industry.

First promised in the spring budget, the Ontario Music Fund will allocate $45 million over three years, with money divided among four streams: music company development (to support recording, production, and marketing); music industry development (to support digital projects and other initiatives to bolster exports); music futures (for smaller companies and artistic entrepreneurs); and live music (to increase the number of events held in the province). Applications for all four streams will be available online by November 7.

Though no money has yet been distributed, those in the industry are excited by what they know so far. Ian Stanger of Black Box Records told us that his colleagues "are very impressed with the flexibility and new opportunities that the OMF seems to provide."

An independent music booker, Dan Wolovick, said that this isn't just a repackaging of existing initiatives: "There's a lot of new money here…and that is exciting." Wolovick isn't entirely convinced yet that the details have been nailed down—he cited income requirements as a "red flag" that might make it harder for emerging artists to benefit from the funding—but he is convinced this is a big step forward for the industry in Ontario. He added that because the money is divided into streams, areas of the industry that don't right now receive much support, like music promotion, will be able to gain a great deal from this new initiative.

Those interested in applying for funds can learn more at the fund's online application portal.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Sources: Ian Stanger, Black Box Records, and Dan Wolovick, Two Way Monologues

When the provincial government released its budget this past spring, one key focus was on employment—and specifically youth employment. At that time Premier Kathleen Wynne announced her intention to roll out several new programs to help Ontario youth find work. Last month, the complete details about the largest of those news programs were released.

The Ontario Youth Employment Fund is a system of incentives to encourage employers to hire young people. The province plans to spend $195 million on the fund over the next two years, and up to $7,800 on each eligible participant. That money is split: up to $6,800 could go to a participant's employer to cover training and defray wages, and up to another $1,000 to the participant directly, to help cover employment costs such as equipment purchases or transportation.

To be eligible, a worker must be between the ages of 15 and 29, unemployed, and not registered as a full-time student. The province has said it will "make special effort to help youth facing barriers to work, including youth on social assistance, aboriginal youth, and youth in communities with high unemployment." Employers, for their part, must provide four to six month job placements which don't take the place of current or recently laid-off employees. Employers can apply to use the fund for multiple employees, and companies in all sectors are eligible.

It's also important to note that the fund supports "non-occupation specific" training: that is, the goal is to help participants develop general workplace competencies—basic computer literacy, communications skills, and so on—rather than provide training for particular industries. The province's employment services department will assist prospective participants in trying to find employment, but workers who find their own jobs can then apply to the fund as well.

Launched at the end of September, the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities reports that in its first month more than 1,200 young people received assistance from the fund; applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities