Better Jobs Ontario

Who Qualifies:

You qualify for Better Jobs Ontario if you either:

• have been laid-off and have not been working or are working a temporary job to cover costs
• have not been laid-off but have been unemployed for six months or longer and are part of a low-income household

You can still apply if you receive either:

• Employment Insurance (EI)
• Ontario Works (OW)
• Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP)

Laid-off due to COVID-19

While the Better Jobs Ontario program is open to unemployed jobseekers, a fast-track stream is available if you were laid-off because of COVID-19 and want to retrain for jobs in sectors that have potential future employment.

If your application meets all the following criteria, you will go through a faster approval process, giving you access to training sooner:

• You were laid off on or after March 1, 2020.
• You have a high school education or less; you were laid-off from an occupation requiring no more than a high school education and job-specific training, such as food and beverage servers, flight attendants and retail salespersons.
• You were laid-off from an industry hit hard by the pandemic, such as hospitality and food services, transportation and warehousing or wholesale and retail trade.
• You want to train for a career in demand in a local community or provincial priority area.