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Canada Creates 750 Paid Work Placements with Electricity Industry Partners

April 19, 2018
Government of Canada will provide over $6.6 million to Electricity Human Resources Council (EHRC) for project Building Partnerships and Opportunities

When post-secondary students get the chance to learn in a hands-on work environment, they build the real-world skills and connections that help them get great jobs when they graduate. That's why the Student Work Placements Program is such a critical part of the Canadian government's plan to put Canada's greatest strength—its skilled, hard-working people—at the heart of a more innovative future economy.

The Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, announced last week that the Government of Canada will provide over $6.6 million to the Electricity Human Resources Council (EHRC) for the project Building Partnerships and Opportunities for Integrated Learning in Electricity, which will help 750 students in the electricity industry and business fields develop important skills and gain valuable workplace experience.

The Government of Canada is rolling out a $73 million Student Work Placements Program to create over 10,000 paid student work placements in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and business over the next four years, and to facilitate stronger partnerships between employers and partnering polytechnics, universities and colleges. This is in addition to funding provided to Mitacs, a not-for-profit organization that provides research internships, with a goal of creating 10,000 work placements per year. With these combined investments, over 60,000 post-secondary students will have paid work placements over the next five years.

Minister Hajdu made the announcement at the Darlington Nuclear Information Centre, together with the Ontario Power Generation and the EHRC, one of several industry partners working with the Government of Canada. The EHRC works to help the electricity industry ensure it has a highly skilled, diverse and productive workforce that meets current and future needs of the Canadian job market.

According to the EHRC, Canada will install and deploy renewable electrical capabilities over the next 10 years with growth of anywhere from 20,000 to 52,000 megawatts of new power. This will increase the skilled workforce needed in this areas by two to three times.

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