The Canada-Alberta Job Grant (CAJG) is funding provided by the Government of Canada through the Workforce Development Agreement. With CAJG, employers can decide what training is needed and apply for it on behalf of their present or future employee(s).
Some of the benefits of the CAJG program are:
- The hiring and training of an unemployed Albertan maybe covered up to 100% or $15,000 per trainee.
- The training of an existing employee may be covered up to 2/3 of the cost, to a maximum of $10,000 per trainee per fiscal year.
Applying for CAJG requires that several eligibility criteria are met, for both the employer and trainee/employee.
Eligible employers are:
- Private-sector and non-profit employers, or
- First Nations and Metis Settlements, or
- The Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (Community size restrictions apply), or
- Alberta Treasury Branches (Community size restrictions apply)
Eligible trainees are:
- Canadian citizens or Permanent residents, who are currently residing in Alberta
- Protected peoples (Immigrants and refugees) who are entitled to work in Canada
- NEW IN 2021 – Small business owners are now eligible to recieve training
- NEW IN 2021 – Employed family members of the owner of a small business are now eligible
- Shareholders, board, council members, or temporary workers are NOT eligible
In order for the training to qualify for the CAJG, it needs to meet some basic requirements, which have been heavily updated in 2021:
- Provide a total 21 instructional hours or longer per trainee per application.
- Result in some credential (record of completion, certification, grade, etc.)
- NEW IN 2021 – Training packages can be customized or be existing training programs
- NEW IN 2021 – Course outlines are no longer required to be listed on the training provider’s website
- NEW IN 2021 – Training is no longer required to be incremental
- NEW IN 2021 – Mandatory training required for a job is now eligible
There are some caveats to the CAGJ applications and how the grant money is used:
- Individual employers can only receive a maximum of $300,000 in grant funding per fiscal year
- Funding cannot be used to reimburse employee wages and Income Support is not available for workers in training
- NEW IN 2021 – Training can start once the full application is received by the CAJG
- NEW IN 2021 – Employers may pay for training at any time
To get started with your Canada Alberta Job Grant application, or to discuss the other ways we can help your business, please e-mail Steven Eddy at steven@sjeconsulting.com or Jason Adams at jason@sjeconsulting.com
Information sourced from: https://www.alberta.ca/canada-alberta-job-grant.aspx
