Second chance

The Second Career program changed Ralph Pilato’s life.

The 42-year-old father of two enrolled at Confederation College in 2007 and three years later graduated. Pilato worked for Great West Timber Limited for 19 years before the company laid him off. He needed to support his wife, Adriana, and his two children –11-year-old son, Peter, and 13-yaer-old daughter, Giulia – but he required more education to start a new career.

"It’s changed my life completely," Pilato said on Tuesday. "Given the economic circumstances in the forestry sector, it more or less forced some of us to make those crucial decisions and mine was clear from the start – to go back to school, get another career and to enjoy it."

Employment Ontario launched the Second Career program in 2008. The program pays the cost of tuition, books, living expenses and other costs associated with training for a new career for laid-off workers.

There are three sites in Thunder Bay offering employment services.

Pilato found it difficult finding time to see family and friends because of the heavy workload. He often spent 12-to-16 hours a day studying. But the hard work paid off when he accepted a job as a developmental service worker as well as working at the Boys and Girls Club.

He decided to change to that career because it suited him better as a person.

"I’m bit of an extrovert," he said. "I enjoy being around people and I volunteered in the field throughout my life. It’s a very rewarding field."

Pilato joined Ontario’s Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities John Milloy at the college on Tuesday. Milloy called the program a success.

Of the 40,000 laid-off workers who entered the program, nearly 70 per cent found new careers, he said.

"We live in a very unfair world," Milloy said. "We still have a relatively high unemployment rate but at the same time in many, many industries and sectors there are actually jobs (available). The graduates are filling jobs in sectors are that are growing and they’re helping with our prosperity."

Even with the economy recovering, Second Career would remain as an option for laid-off workers in Ontario, he added.