Initiative Overview

The Achievement Incentive helps employers train apprentices by reducing some of the costs of training apprentices and supports employers, including those in group sponsors arrangements, by providing a financial incentive when apprentices meet specific training and certification milestones. Enhanced payments, including a registration milestone payment, are provided to employers that sponsor new youth apprentices (under the age of 25) and those from underrepresented or equity-deserving groups (female, transgender, francophone, Indigenous, newcomer, person with a disability and/or racialized).

The Achievement Incentive was introduced effective April 1, 2020.

The Achievement Incentive offers up to $17,000 to eligible sponsors for each new/existing apprentice. How much you receive is tied to your apprentices’ training progress and whether they self-report as under 25 years old or from an underrepresented or equity deserving group.

Every time one of your apprentices completes an in-class training level or attains the highest certification in their trade, you qualify for a payment of $1,000. If the apprentice is under the age of 25 and/or from an underrepresented group, you get access to additional funding of up to $2,000 per milestone, including a registration payment.

Please note that the number of in-class training levels may differ depending on your trade.

The Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development will send you an email when you become eligible to apply for the Achievement Incentive.

To qualify for the Achievement Incentive, you must:

• Be a corporation or unincorporated business that is subject to Ontario income taxes
• Have a Federal/Ontario Business Number
• Have an address or permanent work site in Ontario
• Be an approved ministry sponsor for apprenticeship
• Have a Registered Training Agreement with an apprentice
• Have a registered apprentice who completes an eligible training milestone

For more information on becoming a sponsor and hiring an apprentice visit the Hire an apprentice page on ontario.ca.

Once you receive your eligibility notice, you can apply for the Achievement Incentive online. The notice will provide you with a link to the application form. Completing your application should take no longer than 10-15 minutes.

To complete the application, you will need your:

• Sponsor ID
• Qualifying trade code
• Federal/Ontario Business Number
• Direct deposit form or void cheque
• Supporting documentation that shows the legal business name, business number, and GST/HST account information (if applicable)

No, you only need to apply once.

After your application is approved, any eligible milestone payments will be automatically deposited into your account, including those for new apprentices or apprentices that you train in a different trade. Keep your registrations up-to-date to make sure that we have all of your apprentices and their qualifying training milestones on record.

Use the trade code that is provided in your eligibility notice so we can properly process your application. Once your application has been granted, you will receive milestone payments for any of the trades that you are approved to train for.

Although there is no application deadline, we encourage you to apply as soon as you receive your eligibility notice to maximize the number of payments you receive under the Achievement Incentive program. Unless you apply, any qualifying milestone payments, including bonus payments, will lapse after 365 days.

As part of our service standard, your first payment will be processed within 8 weeks after you apply. Any subsequent payments will be processed within 2-3 weeks of apprentices achieving their training milestones and will be deposited directly into your bank account.

After your application is approved, you will receive an email notification confirming your eligible apprentices. You will also receive a notice for every future milestone payment.

Yes. Payments you receive through the Achievement Incentive program are taxable and you need to report the funds on your tax return.

Your payments will be issued through direct deposit. When you apply you will be asked for your banking information. Have a direct deposit form or void cheque ready when you apply.

Yes, we may conduct audits to ensure that our funding is distributed correctly. As part of the audit, we may request documentation about your apprentices’ training and employment status. Audits are conducted no more than once a year.

If your apprentice is under the age of 25 and/or from an underrepresented group, you qualify for extra funding of up to $2,000 per training milestone, including a registration bonus. The exact amount will depend on the number of criteria your apprentice meets:

The enhanced payment is in addition to the regular $1,000 payment per training milestone.

Underrepresented groups are those who self-identify as female, transgender, Francophone, Indigenous, newcomer, person with a disability and/or racialized.

The registration payment is only for new youth and/or underrepresented apprentices who are in their first Registered Training Agreement and have been registered for a minimum of 45 days. If you take on an apprentice who is not a youth or from an underrepresented group, you will not receive the registration payment.

Are you training an Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP) placement participant through a Registered Training Agreement? Then you will receive the registration payment
after the minimum 45-day registration period.

If an apprentice changes their sponsor within the 45-day registration period, neither sponsor will receive the registration payment.

Yes. Apprentices may be exempted from in-class training as part of the ministry’s Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) policy. Exemptions are still considered eligible milestones and you will qualify for a payment once all other eligibility criteria are met.

Example: Your hairstylist apprentice completed some formal instruction prior to registering as an apprentice and was exempted from Level 1 in-class training. You will be eligible to receive the Level 1 milestone payment once the apprentice has been registered in the Hairstylist trade for a minimum of 12 months.

Yes. If your apprentice completed Level 1 in-class training through OYAP or Pre-App you will qualify for a payment once all other eligibility criteria are met, including being registered for 12 months in the trade. For youth apprentices, this will include the bonus payment for apprentices under 25 years.

No. Apprentices may attend in-class training before meeting the mandatory minimum registration period. However, if your apprentice attends in-class training before completing the minimum mandatory registration period, you will become eligible for a payment once the registration period is met.

Example: Your apprentice completes Level 2 in-class training after 15 months registered as an apprentice. You will receive the Level 2 milestone payment at the 18-month registration
mark.

Yes. If the new sponsor meets all of the eligibility requirements and registration records are up-to-date, the application notice or payment will go to the new qualifying sponsor.

Group sponsors may apply for the Achievement Incentive on behalf of employers who are part of a ministry-approved group sponsor arrangement. Group sponsors are then responsible for distributing the funds to the employers who provided the on-the-job training within the group sponsor arrangement to eligible apprentices.

In situations where the group sponsor directly contributes to apprentice on-the-job training (e.g., a cooperative employer training model), the group sponsor may retain milestone payments for the training they provided.

The one-time application includes an agreement to receive, manage, distribute, and maintain payments.

As a group sponsor, you will need to enter a business number into the application. If you are part of a small informal group of companies that does not have its own business number, select one of the individual business numbers from the group. Make sure that the number you use for the application will not also be registering apprentices individually or outside the group.

As a group sponsor, you will need to determine who is entitled to the payments and whether payments should be split among more than one employer for the same milestone. Payments should correspond to the training employers provide (see example below).

Yes. Group Sponsors agree to:

• Provide the ministry with an annual accounting of how the Achievement Incentive funds were distributed to their group sponsor employer members
• Ministry staff will inquire with a sample of the employers listed to confirm that the reported payments were received

To learn more about the Achievement Incentive, see the Program Guidelines or contact us at Employment Ontario.