Backgrounder


Helping Laid-off Ontario Workers

October 13, 2009

Second Career was launched in June 2008 to help laid-off Ontarians train for new careers in growing sectors. The program's three-year goal of helping 20,000 laid off workers has been surpassed after just 16 months.

  • 8,819 people from Central Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area have been approved for Second Career, along with 7,568 from Southwestern Ontario, 2,870 from the East and 1,680 from the North.
  • 61 per cent of participants have chosen training at a public college, while 39 per cent have chosen private career colleges.
  • The average length of a training program in 2009 is 13.5 months, up from 10.7 months in 2008.
  • Since Second Career was launched, the Employment Ontario hotline has responded to over 43,907 inquiries about the program, and its website has had 3,220,795 hits.
  • The top ten Second Career communities are: Toronto (4,032 participants), Windsor (912), Brampton (755), Mississauga (704), London (684), Ottawa (683), Hamilton (648), Kitchener (591), Chatham (458) and Oshawa (413).
  • Second Career is unique in its emphasis on supporting longer-term retraining.

The McGuinty government is committed to helping displaced workers and affected communities get back on their feet.

Second Career is provided through Employment Ontario, the province's integrated employment and training network, which provides over $1 billion to serve more than a million people, giving workers the tools they need to succeed.

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