Canada-Ontario Job Grant (COJC) For Employee Training

Canada-Ontario Job Grant (COJG) provides opportunities for employers, individually or in groups, to invest in their workforce, with help from the government

The Canada-Ontario Job Grant provides direct financial support to individual employers or employer consortia who wish to purchase training for their employees. It is available to small, medium and large businesses with a plan to deliver short-term training to existing and new employees. Important to know:

• Employers can get up to $10,000 in government support per person for eligible training costs.
• The training has to be delivered by an eligible, third-party trainer.
• Employers with 100 or more employees need to contribute 1/2 of the training costs. Small employers with less than 100 employees need to contribute 1/6 of training costs.  Small employers may be eligible for up to 100% and $15,000 per trainee, if training and hiring unemployed individuals.
• For employer groups who want to apply for training support, the government offers a COJG Consortium Stream. The Consortium Stream allows a group of employers (two or more employers) to pool their resources to support common training objectives and goals. To apply as a consortium, the intermediary organization needs to ensure all the participating employers and trainees meet COJG requirements, and are able to make their required contribution towards the training cost.
• Most organizations acting as an intermediary are eligible for administrative funding equal to 15% of the government contribution.

Link to Government Site for more info

Link to On-line Application

Which employers are eligible for the COJG?

Individual private and not-for-profit sector employers, First Nations and organizations acting on behalf of employers (including union training halls, industry associations, training coordinators and other employer consortiums that meet the requirements below) are eligible to apply for the grant. Eligibility criteria apply to all employers regardless of whether they are training one or multiple individuals.

An employer must:

• make minimum cash contributions towards training costs
• employ the individual selected for training. Higher priority is given to employers who are training and hiring unemployed individuals.
• be licensed to operate in Ontario
• be applying for training that is delivered in Ontario and is related to a job that is also located in Ontario
• comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Employment Standards Act
• maintain appropriate Workplace Safety and Insurance Board or private workplace safety insurance coverage
• have adequate third-party general liability insurance, as advised by its insurance broker
• comply with all applicable federal and provincial human rights legislation, regulations, and any other relevant standards.

An employer must not:

• be currently in receipt of other government funds related to the same skills training for the same individual (e.g., Employment Service)
• use training participants to displace existing staff or replace staff who are on lay-off.
• force individual participants to pay any part of the employers COJG contribution related to training, either directly or indirectly. The employer’s contribution is the employer’s alone.

Eligible Training

Training must be provided by one of the following:

• Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology
• Publicly-assisted universities
• School boards
• Private trainers operating in compliance with the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005
• Union-based training centres

Product vendors

• For the purpose of the Canada-Ontario Job Grant, product vendor training is defined as any training where the vendor is involved in the creation/sale of the product and is also conducting the training. “Product” refers to business-related materials purchased by the employer.

Ineligible Training

• The ministry will not provide COJG funding to an employer for training the employer must provide according to law
• Product vendors are ineligible to deliver training on how to use the product or service.
• Executive training courses (specifically MBA, CFA)
• Preparatory training courses (specifically LSAT, MCAT,GMAT)
• Business Consulting services
• Attending conferences
• Business owners, including individuals with a controlling interest in corporations, are not eligible as trainees.
• Training requests for trainees who are in senior management positions with large organizations (over 500 employees) are ineligible for COJG funding.
  • Trainees who are managers at small and medium employers (less than 500 employees) are still eligible for COJG funding
  • Senior Manager positions are defined by the 2016 National Occupational Code (NOC); the positions with NOC “00” Senior Management Occupations are ineligible.
• Training that exceeds one year in duration
• Membership fees, subscription fees, annual fees, and professional association fees are all ineligible for COJG funding.

Please note:

1.  An employer may apply for the grant more than once, as long as they continue to meet the eligibility criteria.  However, priority will be given to employers who have not received funding in the past 6 months.

2.  There is no guarantee that funds will be received. The government will make that decision.

Link to Government Site for more info

Link to On-line Application