EHRC Programs Provide Funding for Hiring and Training Youth

As an essential service, millions of Canadians rely on the electricity workforce to get the job done every day, safely and efficiently. During the pandemic, we’re reminded over and over again of the resilience and adaptability of the people who make up our grids’ workforces!

But beyond the pandemic, the electricity sector is facing many challenges brought on by technological and demographic change. Increasing demand for clean sources and products, developments in grid technology and organization, and many other factors mean that the landscape of the sector is changing. We need to ensure that our most critical resources—our people—are well-skilled and ready for the job.

Labour market research conducted by Electricity Human Resources Canada (EHRC) has estimates that we will need to recruit over 20,000 new employees in all roles across the sector by 2022. With 86% of our labour needs stemming from retirements, the time to think carefully about engaging with youth and young workers is now.

EHRC’s various wage and training subsidy programs aim to tackle this problem by making it easy for companies across the sector to hire students in work-integrated learning positions, or to bring on young workers for longer placements. Developing the future workforce has many benefits for employers, who may need a bit of a leg up with financing, or who are looking to increase capacity for special projects. Bringing on young workers can also help to shake up a team’s thinking, by injecting ideas straight from the classroom about cutting-edge research.

Training is a crucial element in building the highly skilled workforce that our sector demands. Subsidies are flexible and can be used for multiple initiatives that can engage remote communities or youth facing barriers to employment to build basic skills that will help them enter the workforce. The programs can also be used jointly with post-secondary or training institutions to up-skill workers looking to increase their knowledge.

Whatever your hiring needs, explore the subsidies they have available. If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to reach out to the team at EHRC for answers!