Cochrane Five Year Strategic Plan | Page 104

Town of Cochrane Strategic Plan – Final Report October 2014 • Public health and educational institutions. Visit www.ontario.ca/employmentontario for more information. 12. Youth Employment Fund (YEF) The Ontario government is expanding employment opportunities to help employers find the skilled workers they need and to help young people gain job skills and experience. Employers get incentives to help cover the cost of wages and training for new hires when they provide a job placement of four to six months. To be eligible for hiring incentive funding, you must: • Be licensed to operate in Ontario. • Be compliant with legislation (health and safety, employment standards, etc.). • Provide job placements of four to six months in Ontario, and be covered by WSIB. • Provide job placements that do not displace current or laid-off employees. The job placements will be assessed for the quality of the placement opportunity, the organization’s previous track record, potential for employee retention after the placement ends, and level of employer financial contribution. Employers can receive up to $6,800 to offset training and wage costs linked with a job placement. Incentives are also meant to support on-the-job training and to offset the risk of hiring youth employees with less experience. Incentives are flexible and there is no set formula for whether funding is used for training and/or for wages. Visit http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/eng/employmentontario/youthfund/ for more information. 13. NEOnet’s BEAM Program The Broadband for E-business and Marketing Program can provide businesses with 75% of the costs of website development and/or improvements, to a maximum of $5,000. BEAM helps alleviate some of the associated costs of establishing your business online or for the costs associated with implementing or upgrading E-business applications. The BEAM program provides a framework to help business owners define their business objectives and ensure that the right technology is implemented to achieve the desired outcomes. It does this by addressing the gap between a non-technical business owner and their vendor, as business objectives are clearly defined prior to the implementation of E-business tools. NEOnet will work with the business to help them define their objectives and ensure the appropriate E-business tools are chosen. BEAM is designed to allow the business to identify and easily implement E-business applications, as the program focuses on how the business objectives are going to be achieved. 102