Over 195 thousand dollars from the Ontario Trillium Foundation is putting local job training on wheels.
The Walkerton-based Four County Labour Market Planning Board, which serves Grey, Bruce, Huron, and Perth Counties, is using the grant for its new SOS or Skills Opportunity Showcase.
It’s a trailer that acts as a resource centre that will travel the region providing information about skills development and career opportunities for people needing work.
Board Executive Director Gemma Mendez-Smith says people will now be able to get the information they need.
She says it will reduce the lack of transportation and internet access barriers that some people face when it comes to finding job information.
Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Murdoch was on hand for the funding announcement in Walkerton and says having the four counties work together on providing training information makes sense.
Arran-Elderslie Mayor Ron Oswald is one of the local representatives for the Trillium Foundation and says the arrival of the new trailer couldn’t have happened at a more appropriate time, considering some sectors of the economy have been suffering.
He says the training board is taking an office on wheels to the people, and the Trillium grant is one of the largest ones they’ve ever made in this region.
Huron-Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell says when people are looking for work, there is a complicated mix and match of services available for them, but with the trailer, it becomes a focal point of single access to information.
Mitchell says the trailer was also made locally, by a manufacturer in Brucefield, near Clinton.
Training Board Director Rosemary Rognvaldson of Huron County says the idea for the trailer started out as a dream three years ago.
Grey County Warden Kevin Eccles says bringing job information to people is important right now, and highlighted job losses at Interforest in Durham as just one example why.
Some of the places the trailer will travel to include community events, career symposiums, schools, and first nations communities.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation is a provincial government agency that supports various community projects and not-for-profit groups. Its funding comes from lottery and casino revenue.