SME Companies can Receive up to $20,000 Per Year to Hire Two Apprentices and Help Improve the Trades Labour Shortage

December 15, 2022

Did you know that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can receive up to $20,000 per year to hire up to two apprentices through The Red Seal Apprenticeship Service? Introduced last June, The Bridging Skilled Trades Apprenticeship Service Program is offered through Family Services of Peel. According to Sandra Rupnarain, Executive Director of Family Services of Peel, the program will serve 250 apprentices by the end of the project in 2024.

“This is the first of its kind apprenticeship program offered by the Federal government with incentives to SME companies who participate,”
says Rupnarain. SMEs are companies with fewer than 499 employees.

They can register and hire apprentices in any of the 39 Red Seal Skilled Trades, including everything from manufacturing, construction, plumbing, carpentry, etc. The SMEs can hire and sponsor two apprentices per fiscal year until 2024. If they hire one apprentice, they receive $5,000, but if they employ an apprentice who is female, racially marginalized or has a disability, that amount doubles.”

The Apprenticeship Service Program is a way to address the growing shortage of skilled labour and certified journeypersons in Canada, which is nearing a crisis level, states Rupnarain.

Source: Canadian Immigrant Magazine