What Is Hampton Talking About.....

Results so far indicate McGinty's Second Career training program is working. At the present rate the advertising industry will get $61,520,000 and this will generate jobs in that industry. You have to wonder why we don't see more people, who are collecting social assistance, applying for this government program?

$4M in ads draws 1,300 to retrain

Queen's Park eases rules, throws more money at Second Career program

By JONATHAN JENKINS, QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU

It's taken $4 million worth of advertising to get 1,300 people interested in the province's Second Career retraining program.

And that tab was just for a four-week blitz of television, radio, print and Internet ads that ran in July.

A further ad campaign using only the TV spots is now underway, adding to the $4 million already spent.

John Milloy, the minister for training, colleges and universities, said the hefty ad bill was necessary to launch the three-year, $355 million program.

"It was a new program so we started the advertising in July to publicize (it)," Milloy said. "We're updating the numbers all the time. As of today we've got 1,300 people come forward. We'd like to see more."

Second Career kicked off in June and was intended to attract 20,000 applicants over three years.

It was originally intended for laid-off workers in troubled industries, such as manufacturing or forestry, who were willing to take a two-year retraining course.

But despite the chance at getting up to $28,000 in support, few people were taking up the government's offer and just last Friday Milloy moved to ease the requirements.

Workers can now qualify even if they lost their job as long as three years ago, temporary employment no longer disqualifies them and benefits will no longer be capped at $28,000.

"We've got some feedback that there were some changes that would help open up the pathways and remove some of the obstacles," Milloy said.

The original $4 million included the bill for building the Second Career website, which was getting 7,000 visitors a day when the ads were launched in July, officials said.

But critics have charged the entire scheme is a failure that has badly misread the needs of unemployed Ontarians.

"This was a program that was announced with much back-slapping and self-congratulation by the McGuinty government," NDP Leader Howard Hampton said. "It's obviously a flop and the McGuinty government should admit that."

Hampton said the program was far too restrictive as it was originally designed and the changes Milloy made won't make any difference.

"You can spend mega-dollars advertising it, it won't get you a better result because the design was so bad in the first place," Hampton said.