As we approach the end of another year, the entire team at WBLC wants to extend our warmest holiday wishes to the companies, partners, and trainees who make our work so meaningful.
This year has been filled with opportunities for talented individuals to get hired or upskilled as CNC Machinists via our CNC Machinist Hybrid Learning Program, funded by Upskill Canada. We’re grateful for every success story that has emerged from the program.
To the companies we work with, training and developing talent doesn’t just strengthen your operations, it strengthens entire communities and creates pathways to prosperity for so many individuals and families. We appreciate the collaborative relationships we’ve built and the shared vision we have for a thriving manufacturing sector.
To our partners, thank you for working with us to help build the manufacturing workforce of tomorrow in Canada. To our trainees, we’re excited about the possibilities that await you. The manufacturing sector is growing, and we know you will thrive in it.
We wish you a joyful holiday season and a prosperous new year filled with growth, success, and new opportunities.
Governments are investing billions into workforce development programs to close critical labour gaps in skilled jobs.
Most workforce programs are built around one assumption: If we train enough jobseekers, the hiring problem will fix itself.
So the model goes like this:
Train candidates in classrooms or bootcamps or online
Certify them on general non-technical knowledge
Push them into open roles
This pushmodel sounds logical—but for skilled roles like CNC machining – it breaks down fast.
Why? Because these roles require access to real equipment, experienced coaches, and learning that’s integrated into actual production work. You can’t fully prepare someone for that outside the workplace.
But the problem isn’t just about the mismatch between training environments and real jobs. The workplace itself often isn’t ready either.
Why Many Companies Stall on Hiring or Upskilling
Even when there’s a need, employers often hesitate to take action—and for good reason:
Onboarding is time-consuming. Without a clear structure, bringing someone new up to speed takes constant oversight from senior staff.
Internal trainers aren’t always effective. Skilled machinists may be great at their jobs but haven’t been taught how to coach others.
Training pulls people off the job. Whether it’s the trainee or the trainer, time away from production feels costly.
There’s no starting point. Building your own training plan from scratch takes time, money, and resources most companies don’t have.
It’s hard to find the perfect candidate. So instead of investing in someone with potential, companies wait for a unicorn who can hit the ground running.
All of this adds friction. It makes it harder to say yes—to hiring, to upskilling, to growth.
That’s why WBLC takes a different approach.
A Better Model: Build the System First
Instead of trying to fix the worker, we help fix the system around them.
WBLC works directly with manufacturers to create a structured, repeatable process for building CNC talent—whether it’s a new hire or an internal employee transitioning into a more skilled role.
Here’s how the system works:
Technical Trainers Learn How to Coach
We run a Technical Training Effectiveness Workshop to equip your internal experts with job instruction skills—so they can teach while staying productive on the floor.
Learning Is Aligned to Real Production Work
Trainees follow a clear ‘hybrid learning’ path per an industry-defined job standard:
eLearning modules for core concepts, with weekly shop floor assignments tied to real task
Coaching by Company Technical Trainers on practical skills
A final hands-on certification assessment
This works for both new hires and current employees being upskilled.
Screen Jobseekers for Aptitude and Attitude Upfront
Using our Assure-Job-Fit™ assessment, we help you identify people with strong potential—before you hire them or enroll them in training. You start with better candidates, and you train them faster.
Employees Contribute to Production While They Learn
Trainees stay on the job while learning—no long classroom detours. That means faster ramp-up, less downtime, and visible impact in just 12 weeks.
The Result? Less Friction. More Growth.
When companies have a proven structure:
Hiring feels less risky
Upskilling becomes practical
Trainers are more effective
Trainees ramp up faster
Retention improves
This isn’t just about curriculum or content. It’s about making workforce development something your team can actually do—and benefit from.
To solve the skills gap, we need to stop pushing people in from the outside. We need to build systems that pull them in—and help them grow—on the inside.
Many industrial sectors across Canada are experiencing huge disruption with the advent of new technologies and automation, and most are experiencing a shortage of skilled workers. Using rapid upskilling and reskilling, Work-Based Learning (WBL) programs help diverse job seekers – especially those in underrepresented groups such as women and new Canadians – to find or transition to in-demand skilled jobs in industrial sectors. The programs allow:
unskilled/semi-skilled job seekers and skilled workers in transition to get hired
current employees to acquire industry-valued skills and achieve recognized certification
employers to meet their critical skills needs, efficiently and reliably.
Training / Career Services Provided
The WBLC worked-based learning model circumvents traditional CV-based recruitment approaches. It maps competencies for target jobs, identifies candidates who have been or are at risk of being displaced, refers them for interviews and delivers theoretical knowledge and on-the-job training so people can obtain an industry-recognized credential. Employees ‘earn while they learn’.
Early Results
Since early 2014, over 60 advanced manufacturing employers in Ontario have partnered with WBLC to hire and train unskilled job seekers or upskill current workers or those in transition – a total of more than 650 employees – for skilled jobs at entry-level or mid-level, with a success rate of over 85%.
In the initial phase of the project, WBLC and the Canadian Association of Mold Makers partnered to upskill displaced workers, providing training needed to fill vacancies in mold-making and injection-molding trades in Kitchener-Waterloo and the GTA where companies reported a skilled worker shortage. That initiative helped transition 24 mid-career workers to new or ongoing full-time, permanent employment as skilled workers.
Next Phase
WBLC and its partners are expanding the range of industrial sectors and the provinces in which the value of rapid upskilling will be shown via four (4) new WBL Programs. WBLC will also implement ‘rapid upskilling’ via accelerated delivery of three (3) existing, proven WBL programs for skilled jobs in advanced manufacturing.
In addition, this project will develop and implement three training innovations:
a systematic process to identify the employers’ needs to upskill/reskill their employees and meet their skills shortages
structured Competency Gap Coaching to bridge non-technical competency gaps (transversal skills) for current skilled employees
an AI-driven Technical Workplace Language Fluency training to assist immigrants and workers in transition in advanced manufacturing workplaces.
WBLC has developed Technical Training Effectiveness Workshop specifically designed for manufacturing & production trainers.
Program Goals
The program:
Drives business results with training that immediately improves technical training effectiveness.
Improves the capability of current staff, your on-the-job experts, to deliver effective technical training and coaching to new staff, or current team members who are up-skilling
Provides attendees with an easy-to-use framework for performing their training work.
Immediately improves the Technical Trainer’s productivity and increases their confidence to do the job so they can take on more responsibility.
We focus on the two most important aspects of a technical trainer’s role – a proven method of job instruction training and the skills required to support their trainees as they master their job tasks.
Program Elements
The Program includes modules covering:
How Adults Learn
Job instruction skills
Communication skills
Setting up for success
Diversity / biases
Providing feedback/feedforward.
Program Feedback
Previous attendees have shared:
The workshop and technical training framework gives them confidence in working with their trainees
The training was very supportive for us, it guided us how to train new staff
Hope to attend more training like this as it helped me with new ideas on how to tackle different situations
The Work Based Learning Consortium is now recruiting candidates for its CNC Machinist [Level 1] Selection and Learning Program.
The start date is mid February 2021 in the Greater Toronto Area (closed).
We encourage female candidates to apply. Candidates need to have basic experience in a manufacturing environment, but prior CNC experience is not required. Wages start at $20+.
To learn more about the program and how to apply, visit the Info For Job Seekers page.
