Upskilling: Combine government funding with customized training

A recent trip to my doctor’s office revealed to me just a few of the many changes that have come into our daily lives, almost without notice.

Instead of a full room of chairs, only six remained, each painstakingly positioned away from the others with the precision that must have been down to the micron. The central table that once was home to the wasted paper sent out by paparazzi-employing “magazines” is gone, too, replaced by empty space.

As I sat and waited in my doctor’s small office, however, I noticed a copy of The Medical Post, a magazine for Canadian physicians. Beside it on the old ‘70s-style wooden-topped, metal-frame desk was the Canadian Medical Association Journal, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Canadian Medical Association.

It struck me that the only modern items on the desk were a computer and two industry magazines. Google, and its even more absurdly named competitors Bing and DuckDuckGo, clearly were available to my doctor, yet the magazines were obviously a part of the information cycle that she employed.

It’s proof that my doctor hasn’t stopped learning. In fact, physicians are required by their College to participate in a process of continuing education.

Continuing education in manufacturing, or any field, is important. By keeping up to date on new trends, techniques, tooling, software, and machines, manufacturers can help themselves stay competitive in an ultra-competitive world.

Whether you learn in a classroom (even a virtual one), from a professional trainer, or from a magazine, the goal is the same: to increase your knowledge base to help prepare you for the real-world problems that will come your way.

Training and workforce skills development can improve the productivity of your employees and, therefore, your shop, without the capital spending that is necessary for investment in new equipment.

Encouraging your staff to engage in training programs to gain new skills and sharpen old ones should be a priority for managers. In an industry that always seems to be asked to do more with less, it’s a no-brainer.

And here’s the best part: You may be able to recover up to two-thirds of training costs through the Canada Job Grant. This grant provides up to $10,000 per trainee to cover the costs of hiring trainers, training programs, and exams.

With a skilled production workforce in short supply, manufacturers should collaborate with training partners to develop a curriculum that meets their needs for today, tomorrow, and into the future. It helps close the omnipresent skilled-trades gap and creates the better, higher-skilled workforce needed for the reshoring of work to Canada.