In early 2010, Lutherwood received a $488,500 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (Trillium), an agency of the Government of Ontario. The grant supports a three-year (until the end of 2012) pilot program called "Transitioning in New Times,” which is designed to address the disproportionate levels of unemployment in Waterloo Region.

Local companies are finding they get good applicants for job postings but those applicants are missing a skill set that is very important to their success at that company. Through Transitioning in New Times, Lutherwood is working directly with these companies to develop company-specific training programs for potential employees.

The program aims to help displaced manufacturing workers and new Canadians transition into sectors that are doing well, which in Waterloo Region includes technology, insurance, and food processing.

We recognize that core challenges are inherent in the program, particularly where there is a sizable skills gap between client capabilities and company needs. This new program addresses these gaps by seeking out realistic opportunities for companies and potential employees, helping to ensure realistic training program goals and objectives.

Transitioning in New Times is modeled after other successful training programs operating in other regions, such as those at the Bidwell Training Centre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. These programs help employers ensure an appropriate skill “fit” in potential employees and a good organizational culture “fit”. In some cases – and in a model which could be explored here in the Waterloo Region – multiple companies with similar skill needs could work together to provide input into a program that would develop potential employees who could be a good “fit” across a range of organizations.

If you want to know more about the program please contact:

Marguerite Jacobson
Employment Consultant 
519-743-2246 ext. 1255
mjacobson@lutherwood.ca
165 King Street East Kitchener, ON N2G 2K8

This program is funded by