Though no announcement has been made yet in regard to future government funding for the program, facilitators are calling the Connect2Skills industry training program a success as 90 per cent of those who graduated from the program in its pilot year are now gainfully employed with local manufacturers.

Over the course of three six-week modules held in both Stratford and Listowel – the last of which finished up on Wednesday -- 29 area residents successfully completed the program, which included four weeks of in-class job training and two weeks of paid placement with one of the five local manufacturers that partnered with the Four County Labour Market Planning Board for this endeavour.

“One thing we definitely learned is that things are always changing and we’ve been able to adapt to the feedback we’ve gotten throughout the pilot year,” said Jason Robertson, one of the SkillsAdvance Ontario employment facilitators who ran the program. “So being able to fine-tune and make some changes along the way really helped us.”

Read the full story at stratfordbeaconherald.com.