Double the Union Training and Innovation program to $50 million a year to support more apprenticeship training opportunities and additional partnerships in the Red Seal trades across Canada, and target more participation from women, Indigenous people, newcomers, persons with disabilities, and Black and racialized Canadians.

Move forward on our plan to establish a new Apprenticeship Service which will connect 55,000 first-year apprentices in Red Seal trades with opportunities at small and medium-sized employers.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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New Democrats know that we can do better for all workers. We’re committed to working with the provinces to ensure that Canadians have access to education throughout their professional lives, including proactive training and retraining, as well as support when they are unemployed.

Our vision is one where training opportunities are flexible enough to work with people’s busy lives, and significant enough to really improve job prospects.

To get there, we’ll change EI rules to allow workers who quit their job to go to school to qualify for EI benefits, so that families can count on some income support during that period of transition back to school. We’ll also expand options for workers in designated sectors and regions to take EI funded training in advance of losing a job while at the same time promoting investment to ensure that regional economies are creating good jobs that support families and communities. Finally, to make sure that businesses are investing in the training that Canadians need, a New Democrat government will require large employers to spend at least 1 percent of payroll on training for their employees annually.

In order to deliver these changes, we’ll work closely with the provinces to establish national training priorities, and create a new Workers Development and Opportunities Fund to expand training options beyond people who qualify for EI. This fund will be provincially directed, with dedicated support for marginalized workers, those in transitioning sectors and for efforts to improve literacy and essential skills.

— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27

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• Double the Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit for the next three years to help create more places for apprentices.

• Invest $250 million over two years to create the Canada Job Training Fund. The Fund will provide grants to organizations including employers, apprenticeship training delivery agents, unions, post-secondary institutions, and community organizations for projects that:

° Give laid-off workers immediate access to training,

° Reach out to traditionally underrepresented groups,

° Support the talent needs of small businesses, and

° Otherwise help workers get the training they need - focussing (sic) on areas where there are shortages of skilled workers.

• Create the Working Canadian Training Loan to provide low interest loans of up to $10,000 to people who want to upgrade their skills.

— Canada's Recovery Plan, retrieved 2021-08-18

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Make it easier for women and vulnerable groups to access training by requiring businesses supported through the Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program to include wrap-around supports. This could include transportation to and from the training program, computers, food, referral to counselling, housing, and legal support, support in finding child care, and mentoring or coaching.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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Our vision is for every Canadian to have access to quality post-secondary education, regardless of their income. Over the long term, this means working with the provinces and territories to cap and reduce tuition fees, and building towards making post-secondary education part of our public education system so kids can go from kindergarten to a career without the barrier of cost. This is an important goal and we believe that with the right leadership and political will, we can get there.

There are steps we can take to make education more affordable right now. Five provinces have already shown leadership in eliminating interest rates on student loans. It’s time for the federal government to do the same, and stop profiting from student debt. New Democrats will remove interest from federal student loans, and to help lift the debt burden from young people starting out, we will introduce a targeted debt forgiveness program for graduates that will forgive up to $20,000 in student debt. In the first year alone, this will wipe out 20% of all student debt and help 350,000 borrowers save money every month.

We’ll also move away from loans and permanently double non-repayable Canada Student Grants. Accessing financial support for your post-secondary education shouldn’t be a debt sentence – we’ll make sure that young people can start out in life without a crushing debt burden.

— Ready for Better, retrieved 2021-08-27

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1. Abolish post-secondary education tuition

● Free “Education For All” is estimated to cost approximately $10.2 billion annually. Universal education is not a far financial reach from the existing student aid and can sustain a system of universally accessible, post-secondary education.

● Universal post-secondary education would be partially financed by redirecting existing spending on tuition tax credits, saved costs of administering the student loan system, and the hundreds of millions of dollars of student loan defaults written off every year.

2. Cancel all federally held student loan debt

● This will help prevent half of students who earn a bachelor’s degree in Canada from graduating with more than $28,000 in debt.

3. Reintroduce a retroactive Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB)

● Ensure all those eligible for the CESB receive $2,000 per month – the same amount as the Canada Recovery Benefit for the period beginning May 1, and until the pandemic is over.

● Ensure that international and recently graduated students are eligible to receive this benefit.

4. Remove the two per cent cap on increases in education funding for Indigenous students

● Ensure all Indigenous youth have access to post-secondary education.

5. Improve funding in federal-provincial transfers to universities and colleges

● Provide more funding to universities and colleges with a measurable focus on student-professor contact, mentorship, policies of inclusion and tenure track hires.

● Reinvest in the system. Greens will allocate $10 billion to post-secondary and trade school supports.

6. Build a more flexible and accessible education

● Expand opportunities for reskilling and retraining, by increasing the Canada Training Benefit to support continuous learning, and support for post-secondary institutions to provide new, innovative academic offerings.

● Enhance access to graduate education, by tripling the number of Canada Graduate Scholarships available for master’s students and doubling the number available for PhD students.

● Position Canada as a destination of choice for international talent and support post-secondary institutions to welcome international students safely.

— Be Daring., retrieved 2021-09-11

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Permanently eliminate the federal interest on Canada Student Loans and Canada Apprentice Loans to support young Canadians who choose to invest in post-secondary education. This will benefit over 1 million student loan borrowers and save an average borrower more than $3,000 over the lifetime of their loan.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

Increase the repayment assistance threshold to $50,000 for Canada Student Loan borrowers who are single. This means that new grads, working hard early in their careers, won’t have to begin repaying their loans until they earn at least $50,000 annually.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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Increase the refundable tax credit to 25% (from 15%).

Expand eligibility criteria to include tech devices and ensure that teaching supplies purchased to perform employment duties are eligible, no matter where that may be.

— Forward. For Everyone., retrieved 2021-09-02

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