In May 2017, the City of Mississauga launched the Building Skilled Talent Together (BSTT) Mississauga program. BSTT is an initiative that focuses on developing concrete actionable solutions to the skills gap challenges and the difficulty manufacturers have in filling technical occupations.
The program was kicked off with an event that attracted 100 people from advanced manufacturing companies, education and industry associations to discuss the talent needs in Mississauga. Below are some of the exciting outcomes that came out of that event:
- A Food & Beverage company was able to hire a welder from one of our specialized training organizations present;
- A firm that serves a number of verticals including aerospace was able to hire a student to assist in design and product development as a result of the BSTT event;
- A mid-size automotive firm began the process of developing a customized leadership and technical skills training program for its existing employees in conjunction with a post-secondary institution that attended the event;
- An automotive manufacturer committed to support a Mississauga secondary school in their FIRST Robotics programming for students;
- An Advanced Manufacturing Sector Council, comprised of industry representatives from all subsectors, was created which serves to advise me in my role as Advanced Manufacturing Business Integrator for the City of Mississauga on future initiatives to benefit our companies.
It is these types of impactful and tangible connections that the City is achieving through BSTT that benefit Mississauga’s advanced manufacturing community to meet their talent needs.
Building on our success, the City’s Economic Development Office is hosting another BSTT networking event on November 21st. The event will give local manufacturers the opportunity to speak directly with federal and provincial funding and service representatives who can provide funding options to de-risk the onboarding of new employees or upskilling existing employees.
If you are a Mississauga manufacturing company with workforce development challenges and want to obtain direct solutions, please register for Building Skilled Talent Together by clicking here.
