Hire smarter with work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities, wage subsidies, and financial incentives for students and apprentices
The Empowering Futures Program is Canada’s Student Work Placement Program for the electricity industry. Aimed at preparing students for the future of work, the program will create new work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities in electricity by providing subsidies of up to $7,000 per student position to the organizations who create these new opportunities.
Funding For Futures is a new intuitive and easy-to-use platform launched on July 28th that takes users through a step-by-step application and documentation process in an interactive, web-based environment when applying, monitoring, and managing their wage subsidy application.
While technical and specialized knowledge is foundational for career success in electricity, organizations are also looking for candidates who demonstrate a high level of proficiency in professional skills. Professional skills include active listening, social perceptiveness, and collaboration. Take time to take stock of your professional skills while job searching with EHRC’s resources for developing and applying professional skills.
Work-integrated learning (WIL) is an essential step to transition from school to work, and the best way to learn how to put education into practice. To show how WIL contributes to the talent pipeline and career growth in Canada’s electricity sector, we’ve published Empowering the Next-Generation Workforce, a thought paper informed by experts with practical recommendations on how we can increase WIL uptake and best prepare the next generation of electricity workers.
From the boardroom to the front line, careers in electricity take more than technical skills—they require professional skills: the ability to communicate, work together, and organize work effectively. To explain these skills and the value they have to any worker or organization, we’ve published Skill savvy. Based on research and international best practices, this paper identifies 10 professional skills that all electricity sector workers need, where they fall short, and how they can be fostered by educators and organizations through work-integrated learning.
We’ve collected stories from across Canada, from both organizations and students, about how Empowering Futures is building the workforce of tomorrow.
Organization Testimonials
Eric, CIO at Spark Power
Jon, Field Manager at Hydro One
Nirav, HR Director at Ontario Power Generation
Nicole, Senior Manager, HR Corporate Services at Nalcor Energy
Student Testimonials
Zoee, Electrical Engineering Student
Tristan, Nursing Student
Natalie, Chemical Engineering Student
Alyssa, Business Finance Student
Abine, Environmental Sciences Student
Frequently Asked Questions
If you are an organization or student wondering if Empowering Futures is right for you, consider the following information:
Student: Why Empowering Futures?
Gain experience before entering the workplace
Grow your confidence in your abilities
Build a professional network
Student: What is a work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunity?
A work-integrated learning opportunity is any placement including co-ops, internships, apprenticeship, applied projects, capstone projects or case competitions. These placements are provided to students looking to gain field experience. Empowering Futures can fund co-ops, internships and work placements with ties to the students’ studies.
What is the Apprenticeship Service?
The Government of Canada’s’ has established the Apprenticeship Service to encourage and support employers (small and medium-sized enterprises) to hire first-year apprentices, particularly from construction and manufacturing Red Seal trades across Canada. This will help first-year apprentices connect with employment opportunities at SMEs, giving them the hands-on experience and supports that are required to succeed in the skilled trades.
Student: What is the Student Work Placement Program?
The Government of Canada’s Student Work Placement Program (SWPP) brings industry stakeholders together to create new work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for students who will be better positioned to secure employment in their field of study.
Organizations: Why Empowering Futures?
Offset risk by subsidizing costs.
Try out a new prospective worker before hiring.
Build your talent pipeline and the future workforce.
Organizations: What are the project objectives?
Empowering Futures will create new WIL opportunities in electricity by providing wage subsidies or financial incentives up to $10,000 to employers who create new WIL opportunities. The goal of the program is to help young Canadians make the transition from school to work through collaborative partnerships between the Canadian employers and post-secondary institutions. EHRC is proposing to strengthen research, development and innovation partnerships between these stakeholders to ensure that the curricula being delivered aligns with the needs of the sector.
Organizations: How will this shape the future?
A steering committee of committed stakeholders from industry and academia is advising, guiding, participating in, and assessing project activities. They are validating findings, assisting with stakeholder engagement, and determining how the findings can be best used to increase the participation of employers and educational institutions across Canada. Information is collected and shared with industry partners and post-secondary institutions to ensure program sustainability.
Organizations: What is the value for employers?
Empowering Futures makes getting involved in preparing the sector’s future workforce more rewarding. The program’s co-op wage subsidies and financial incentives for first-year apprentices help your organization minimize the financial barrier of hiring students or apprentices and it covers the cost of a co-op student’s salary for science, technology, engineering, mathematics, arts or business placements, or a first-year apprentice in one of the 39 construction or manufacturing Red Seal trades.
Participating Organizations
Participating Educators
The Student Work Placement Program (SWPP)
The Student Work Placement Program gives post-secondary students across Canada paid work experience related to their field of study.
