Applicant guide: Funding to become an intermediary under the Apprenticeship Service Program

On this page

• Part 1 – Organization
• Part 2 – Project
• Part 3 – Funding
• Part 4 – Attestation
• Appendix A

Part 1 – Organization

A - Organization identification

Question 1: Legal name

What is your organization's legal name? The legal name is usually:

• the name on your registration with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) or provincial/territorial equivalent, or
• the name used on funding cheques, bank accounts, etc.

Question 2: Operating name (if different from legal name)

What is the operating (or common) name of your organization (if it differs from the legal name)?

Question 3: Business or registration number

What is your 15-digit CRA business number? (For example, 123456789 RR 0001).

For registered charities and not-for-profit organizations, what is your registration number?

You can find your CRA business number on tax-related documents or written communications from the CRA.

For more information, please visit CRA.

You must provide 1 of the following documents if you do not have a:

• CRA business number
• charity registration number
• not-for-profit registration number

If incorporated:

• a copy of letters of patents
• articles of incorporation
• certificate of incorporation
• memorandum of association
• your rules, by-laws, or constitution

If not incorporated:

• a copy of your rules
• bylaws
• council resolutions
• constitution

Question 4: Organization type

Your organization must be 1 of the following type:

• union representing workers in Red Seal trades or an organization managing training funds for Red Seal trades workers, for example:
  • a joint training fund set up by a union
  • a union and an employer association
• not for profit organization
• for profit organization
• Indigenous organization, including:
  • band council
  • tribal council
  • Self-government entity
  • Indigenous-led union
• provincial and territorial government, institution, agency or Crown Corporation

Question 5: Organization category

Choose 1 of the following:

Not-for-Profit:

1. Indigenous educational institution
2. Indigenous not-for-profit group
3. Associations of workers and/or of employers
4. Local community, charitable, voluntary organization
5. National non-governmental organization
6. Non-governmental organization with a focus to encourage employment
7. Not-for-profit Band Council
8. Provincial non-governmental organization
9. Sector council
10. Union

Private sector:

11. Businesses, bodies incorporated or unincorporated
12. Indigenous band corporation (profit basis)
13. Private band council
14. Private university or college

Public sector:

15. Crown Corporation
16. Provincial government and agency
17. Public community college and vocational school
18. Public degree-granting college
19. Public degree-granting university
20. School Board/Other educational institution
21. Territorial government and agency

Question 6: Year established

What year was your organization established?

Your organization must be in operation for at least 5 years to be eligible.

Questions 7 to 11: Organization address

What is your organization's address? Give a complete address in a format recognized by Canada Post. For more information, please visit Canada Post website.

Questions 12 to 14: Telephone, fax and email

What is your organization's telephone number, fax number (if it has one) and email address?

Questions 15 to 19: Mailing address (if different from organization address)

What is the mailing address of your organization (if it differs from your organization's physical address)?

Questions 20 and 21: Telephone and fax

What are your organization's telephone and fax numbers (if different from your organization’s telephone and fax numbers)?

Question 22: Organization’s mandate

What are your organization’s main activities, including your mandate, mission and objectives? We will give priority to organizations that already provide services in multiple provinces and/or territories. If it is the case for your organization, please indicate which provinces and/or territories.

B - Organization contact

Primary contact

Question 23: First name and last name

Who is the main contact person for the proposed project?

Question 24: Position title

What is the title of the contact person named in question 23?

For example:

• founder
• president
• executive director
• director

Question 25: Preferred language of communication

What official language would your contact person prefer to use in written and spoken communications?

Question 26: Organization contact (address)

Does the address of your contact person differ from the organization address or the organization mailing address in Section A?

Questions 27 to 31: Contact address

If you answered “different” in question 26, what is the address of your contact person?

Questions 32 and 33: Telephone and fax

What are the telephone and fax numbers of your contact person?

Question 34: Email address

What is the email address of your contact person? We will send all communications to this address.

Question 35 to 46: Secondary contact

If we cannot reach the main contact, who else can we contact? Provide the person’s full name, telephone number where we can reach them during business hours and their email address.

C. Organizational capacity

Question 47: How many employees does your organization currently have?

Indicate the total number of employees in your organization.

Question 48: Has your organization undergone any important transformations in the past 2 years?

Important transformations can include, but is not limited to:

• a change in leadership in the board of directors or at the executive level
• a large reduction, increase or turnover in staff
• a merger with or split from another organization
• a change in mandate or main activities, etc.

If you answer “yes” to this question, describe the changes.

Question 49: Describe how your organization has the experience and expertise to carry out the proposed project activities

You must clearly:

• describe your organization’s financial management experience, within the last 5 years, and how you:
  • delivered initiatives that included a variety of partners; or
  • acted as an intermediary to support organizations, which could have included distribution of funding

  This could include a description of:

  • how you managed agreements with various partners, such as:
    • communications strategy
    • information and technology management systems
    • performance measurement strategy
  • how you managed project funding received from any level of government
  • your policies and procedures for your organization’s operations, such as:
    • payroll
    • purchases
    • accounts payable
    • accounts receivable
  • your annual budget, including:
    • all sources and uses of fund
  • your fiscal planning process, including:
    • assessment of risks
    • insurance coverage needs
    • appropriate risk management procedures
• describe your network with SMEs that employ journeypersons in the 39 construction and/or manufacturing Red Seal trades.

  This could include:

  • a description of the SMEs that you currently work with
  • the type of trades that the SMEs support/employ and where they are located in Canada
  • a description of your organization’s role with the network
  • a description of the network, such as:
    • size of the network, for example:
      • number of members/SMEs
      • whether the size increased/decreased in the last 5 years
    • activities of the network, for example details on:
      • any achievements or initiatives led or partnered
      • whether access to resources and publications are provided
  • description on whether the network/members of the network are all directly related to the construction and/or manufacturing Red Seal trades
  • effectiveness and frequency of the communication with the members, for example:
    • networking events
    • conference
    • symposiums
  • description on whether there is engagement with other organizations outside of their network that have contact/exposure to SMEs, particularly organizations involved in the construction and manufacturing sectors

• demonstrate your effective governance

  This could include details on your Board of directors, for example:

  • the existence of the Board of directors
  • Board effectiveness: for example:
    • frequency of meeting, such as: quarterly
    • records of decision
  • direction provided to the executive team on the overall operations of the organization
  • subject to annual audits by an independent auditor
  • staff turnover and talent attraction
  • risk management and mitigation strategies
  • transparency, for example:
    • availability of information
    • Annual General Meeting
  • accountability, for example:
    • Annual Report
    • Annual General Meeting
• demonstrate your experience in reporting on results

  This could include a description:

  • of your evaluation and reporting structure to measure the impact of your organization’s work and results report
  • of how you communicate the results with the public, for example:
    • information on the public Annual General Meeting your organization hosts
  • on your organization’s production of regular reports, such as annual reports
  • on how detailed the information is being reported

Question 50-51: Does your organization owe any amount to the Government of Canada?

If ‘Yes’, complete the fields for each amount owing. We will not reject your application for this reason. However, you must provide detail as to the type of debt and the arrangements you have for repayment.

Part 2 – Project

A - Project identification

Question 52: Project title

Give a short title that describes your project.

Questions 53 and 54: Planned project start (yyyy/mm/dd) and end dates (yyyy/mm/dd)

When do you plan to start and end your project?

We expect to make funding decisions in winter 2022.

You must commit to act as an intermediary until March 31, 2024.

Indicate the planned start and end dates of your proposed project.

You must start your project activities after we approve your project and a signed funding agreement is in place. We can only pay for activities that have started after we sign the agreement.

B - Project description

Question 55: Project objectives (must clearly link to the program goals)

You must describe how your organization will support SMEs to hire new, first-year apprentices in the 39 construction and/or manufacturing Red Seal trades.

Question 56: Project activities (give clear steps for each one)

You must describe how your organization will:

• use or expand its existing network to hire new, first-year apprentices with SMEs in the 39 construction and/or manufacturing Red Seal trades
• manage and distribute funding to SMEs, including how you will distribute funding if the apprentice hired is from a key group
• provide additional supports to SMEs to participate in the apprenticeship system; for example:
  • help to onboard apprentices
  • help to create an inclusive workplace
  • provide workplace diversity and sensitivity training
  • support to hire and retain apprentices from key groups

You must also describe the steps that your organization will take to meet the objective of the project, by providing:

• clear and relevant description of the project activities
• clear and feasible project timelines

Eligible activities may include, but not limited to:

• set up project infrastructure
  • hiring and supervising staff and contractors
  • develop a work plan to use or expand existing networks to deliver the funding to SMEs, as well as provide additional supports
• promote and market the benefits of hiring apprentices in the Red Seal trades, for example:
  • hold sessions and webinars for SMEs
  • develop a communication plan
  • represent the project in the community/with SMEs and stakeholders
• expand existing networks with SMEs, for example:
  • reach out to SMEs and stakeholders through social media
  • schedule meetings and/or networking events with SMEs
  • advertise the project to SMEs and stakeholders through social media, career fairs, etc.
• develop and provide additional supports to SMEs to participate in the apprenticeship system, for example:
  • develop a plan of action to disseminate information and knowledge by actively engaging SMEs. For example, share:
    • best practices, such as:
      • implementing mentoring practices
      • creating networking activities with employers
      • developing tools or supports for employers in their hiring processes
      • implementing inclusive workplace training for employers
    • innovative approaches, such as:
      • using a new approach
      • changing an existing approach
      • scaling of best practices (including best practices from other organizations)
  • tools
  • resources
  • training guides
  • newsletters
  • websites
  • public education materials
• develop and use approaches and products for learning, skills development and workplace training related to apprenticeship in the Red Seal trades, for example:
  • workplace diversity and sensitivity training
  • harassment and discrimination awareness
  • support to hire and retain apprentices from key groups
• identify data collection methods, data sources and data analysis methods, for example:
  • key informant interviews
  • focus groups
  • attendance tracking
  • verbal feedback
• manage and distribute funding to SMEs (for example, develop and implement the process to deliver the funding)
• develop an evaluation toolkit, including declaration forms, for agreement holders
• put in place agreements, including clauses on payments (for example, the second payment could be tied to the number of on-the-job hours worked, if applicable)
• collaborate with agreement holders
• monitor activities

Question 57: Expected results of the project

You must clearly describe the expected results of your project.

The expected results of the project must clearly link to the project objectives. They must also be specific, concrete and measurable (qualitative and/or quantitative), and must be defined as outputs and outcomes.

• Outcomes are the short-term changes that you expect the project to deliver. You can link more than one outcome to an objective. Outcomes answer the questions:
  • “How will we know the project is a success?”
  • “How will the project help increase the participation of SMEs in apprenticeship?”
• Outputs are direct products or services stemming from the activities of the organization within the control of the organization itself.

Question 58: Does the project include indicators to measure results?

Your answer to this question must be “yes”. Describe how you plan to gather, measure and report on your project’s results.

If we select your organization, you will be required to provide information about the results of your project, including:

• aggregated information on the SMEs who enter into sub-agreements (funding amount, etc.)
• number of SMEs who received a financial incentive to hire new, first-year apprentices in the 39 construction and/or manufacturing Red Seal trades, by trade
• number of SMEs who accessed other supports to hire new, first-year apprentices
• number of new, first-year apprentices hired in the 39 construction and/or manufacturing Red Seal trades, by trade
• number of new, first-year key group apprentices hired in the 39 construction and/or manufacturing Red Seal trades, by trade, such as:
  • women
  • Indigenous people
  • newcomers
  • persons with disabilities
  • racialized communities, including Black Canadians
  • LGBTQ2+

Question 59: Does this proposed project fit with your organization's other activities?

If “yes”, describe how your proposed project relates to the work your organization is doing now.

Question 60: Will any of the project activities be delivered in a different location than where your organization is located?

If “yes”, include your main address and add the other addresses.

If you have more than 5 locations, please continue your answer in Appendix A.

Question 61: Will your project benefit or involve people in English or French language minority communities?

We commit to enhance the vitality of the English and French linguistic minorities in Canada. We support and assist their development and foster the full recognition and use of both English and French in Canadian society. Official language minority communities are English-speaking communities established within the province of Québec and French-speaking communities established outside the province of Québec.

Answering “no” to this question will not invalidate your application.

If your proposed project involves official language minority communities, you should answer “yes” to this question. Complete the question following the instructions in the Application Form.

Find more information about official language minority communities.

Question 62: Will any other organizations, networks be involved in carrying out the project?

If you secure partnership(s), you must provide:

• information about the partner(s):
  • name
  • type of organization, such as:
    • union representing workers in Red Seal trades
    • organization managing training funds for Red Seal trades workers
    • not for profit organization
    • for profit organization
    • Indigenous organization
    • provincial and territorial government, institution, agency or Crown Corporation
• how the partner(s) will participate in the project (time and/or resources)
• how the partner(s) or partners will benefit from the project results

Question 63: Does the project address the program’s national, regional or local priorities?

There are no national, regional or local priorities for this application process.

Answer "no" to this question.

Question 64: Does your project include activities that are listed in Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) Regulations Designating Physical Activities established under the Canadian Impact Assessment Act 2019?

Not applicable for this funding. Answer “no” to this question.

Part 3 – Funding

A - Anticipated sources of funding

Contributions from other sources other than the Government of Canada are not required for this CFP.

However, if you receive cash or in-kind contributions from sources other than the Government of Canada, give details in your Application Form. See instructions below.

Question 65: Source name

List Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) as the first source name and include amount requested.

If you are receiving contributions from other sources, include the names of all the other sources that contribute to your project.

Question 66: Source type

Indicate the type of organization you are receiving contributions from (including us) using the following list:

• not-for-profit organizations
• municipalities
• provincial and territorial governments, institutions or Crown Corporations
• Indigenous organizations including:
  • band council
  • tribal council
  • Self-government entity
  • Indigenous-led union
• coalitions, networks or committees
• research organizations or institutes
• educational institutions
• for-profit organizations

Question 67: Cash contributions

Tell us how much in cash contributions you will receive.

Question 68: In-kind contributions

In-kind are goods or services people or organizations give for free. Your organization, other organizations or partners can donate. They include equipment, services or labour that you receive for free.

If you are getting in-kind contributions, tell us how much it is worth.

To be eligible as an in-kind contribution:

• you must need it for the project to succeed
• the organization who gives it to you also gives you a document showing its commitment

We will recognize in-kind donations only if we can estimate what a person would pay for the contribution.

Question 69: Confirmed cash and in-kind

Check the box if the contributions are confirmed.

B - Budget

List each activity and its associated cost in your Application for funding (PDF Format) and Budget detail template (PDF Format). The amounts must be the same in both documents. Your costs must be reasonable and support your project activities.

Question 70: Cost category

Summarize your project budget by using the Budget detail template (PDF format, 47 KB).

Examples of eligible costs:

• overhead costs of up to 15%; including costs related to central administrative functions of the eligible recipient that are drawn upon to support agreement activities, such as:
  • shared postage
  • telephones
  • information technology maintenance
  • head office support
• materials and supplies
• wages and mandatory employment-related costs
• staff training and professional development costs
• honoraria costs
• translation
• hospitality costs and travel costs
• printing and communication costs
• participant costs; including accommodation costs, childcare costs, and transportation costs

Examples of ineligible costs:

• the purchase of real property
• consultant fees for individuals who are also receiving a salary from your organization or its partner
• costs incurred to prepare the proposal
• entertainment costs
• expenditures outside the start and end dates of the contribution agreement
• fines or penalties
• shipping (cost of delivery of material and equipment)

Questions 71 to 73: Planned spending (dollar)

C - Budget details

Question 74: Associated businesses or individuals

Check all statements that apply to your planned spending of the funding from us.

In carrying out the project, you may have to buy goods or services you need to carry out the project from contractors. You may also contract out to third parties (outside providers) to carry out part of the project activities.

“Associated businesses or individuals” means:

• an officer, director or employee of your organization, or a member of their immediate family
• a business in which an officer, director or employee of your organization, or a member of their immediate family, has a financial interest
• a business connected to your organization

We must approve contract work awarded to contractors outside of Canada. You must provide a proof that no Canadian contractors can do similar work.

Question 75: Capital assets: Will capital assets be among your planned expenditures with ESDC funding?

Answer “yes” or “no”.

If “yes”, explain how your project will benefit from buying capital assets.

A capital asset is any single or composite asset that costs more than $1,000 (before taxes). A capital asset is not part of another product and you can still use at the end of the project.

A composite asset is a group of assets that form one unit, where you need everything for the asset to work. A group of assets is a single capital asset if the total cost is more than $1,000 (before taxes).

For example, a composite capital asset is:

• a personal computer with a hard drive
• a monitor
• a keyboard
• a mouse
• cables

Four chairs that each cost $300 are not capital assets because each chair works on its own. The chairs cost less than $1,000 (before taxes).

Question 76: Further budget details

Include a breakdown of your total costs per fiscal year (April 1 to March 31), by project activity and cost category.

As an example, this could be the breakdown for a 2-year project with 100,000,000 in eligible costs:

• Year 1 – April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023: $50,000,000
  • Activity 1: $25,000,000
    • Cost Category 1: $15,500,000
    • Cost Category 2: $10,000,000
  • Activity 2: $25,000,000
    • Cost Category 1: $12,500,000
    • Cost Category 2: $12,500,000
• Year 2 – April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024: $50,000,000
  • Activity 1: $35,000,000
    • Cost Category 1: $20,000,000
    • Cost Category 2: $15,000,000
  • Activity 2: $15,000,000
    • Cost Category 1: $9,000,000
    • Cost Category 2: $6,000,000
• Total: $100,000,000

Part 4 – Attestation

(This section is mandatory)

To be considered eligible, an official representative must attest that they:

• have the capacity and the authority to submit an Application for Funding on behalf of the organization
• certify that the information provided in the Application for Funding and any supporting documentation is true, accurate, and complete, and
• have read the applicant guide and understood the program’s requirements

To do this, the official representative must provide their name, title and the date As this is an attestation, no signature is required.

Appendix A

Use this section to add information to previous sections of the application, and specify the question number.