Province launches workforce innovation hubs

The province has launched a new Ontario Centre for Workforce Innovation with a Thunder Bay hub.

The project, a collaboration with Ryerson University, was designed to help Ontario workers find and keep employment, while developing skills needed by local employers.

The centre will have regional hubs in Toronto, Thunder Bay, London and Kingston, as well as a francophone co-ordinating centre in Sudbury.
The Thunder Bay hub will be located at the North Superior Workforce Planning Board. In addition to professional development, the program will offer research and pilot training projects, as well as project evaluation.

It will also launch a bilingual website to share research and information with both professionals and the public.

“People in Northern Ontario face unique labour force issues not experienced in other regions of the province. Therefore It is quite fitting that Thunder Bay has been selected to be the Northern regional hub for Ontario’s new Centre for Workforce Innovation,” said Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle in a release issued on Wednesday.

“By partnering with Lakehead University, the CWI will benefit from the knowledge and insight of one of Northern Ontario’s premier research institutions and will be able to better assist job seekers in the province’s North.”