Backgrounder:  Women’s Employment Readiness pilot program

The Women’s Employment Readiness (WER) pilot program was announced in the 2020 Fall Economic Statement and aims to strengthen training supports for those most affected by the pandemic. This pilot program will fund organizations to provide and test pre-employment and training supports for women. It will also include working with employers to reduce barriers to employing women.

To identify organizations for funding, a Call for Proposals launches on June 2 and ends on June 30, 2021.
Eligible organizations must meet the experience requirements indicated in the Applicant Guide.

The projects funded through this pilot will be required to:

• test and provide foundational and transferable skills training models (which may include literacy and essential skills) with wrap-around supports to access skills training, e.g. child-care, transportation, counselling, living allowances, access to technology, appropriate work clothing, mentorship or sponsorship, etc. for the following four target groups:
  • racialized and/or Indigenous women;
  • women with disabilities;
  • women from the LGBTQ2 community; and
  • women with prolonged detachment from the labour force.
• test methods to improve workplace inclusivity for at least one of the target groups to improve their access to employment and/or retention in the workplace; and
• be national in scope (i.e. serve participants in two or more provinces/territories) and regional in scope if serving participants located in Official Language Minority Communities.