After a layoff, retraining money comes through three separate doors: Employment Insurance rules for studying while on claim, provincial funded-training programs, and tax-time credits for fees you pay yourself. Which door applies, what each one pays, and the order to do things in.
Applies in: across Canada
Losing a job is expensive twice over: the income stops, and the training that would get you the next job costs money you no longer have. Canada has no single retraining cheque. There are three separate doors, and which one applies depends on where you are in the process: the Employment Insurance rules for studying while on a claim, a provincial program that funds training for laid-off workers, and tax-time credits for fees you pay yourself. They can combine, but they do not replace each other, and the order you do things in decides whether the money is there at all.
This guide covers retraining support after a layoff only. Childcare subsidies, dental coverage under the CDCP, and student-loan forgiveness are separate programs with separate applications, and they are not bundled in here.
Do these in order, before you enrol in anything:
The federal page draws one sharp line: training you choose yourself versus training you are referred to.
Non-referred training is any course or program you take without approval from Service Canada, your provincial or territorial government, or an Indigenous organization. College and university courses, professional certifications, and language learning all count. If you receive regular or fishing benefits, you must remain capable of and available for work, continue looking for suitable employment, and be ready to adjust or cancel your training if you receive a job offer. Until Service Canada confirms your situation, you must stay available and actively look for work while in training. If it determines your availability was affected, you may not be entitled to the benefits you received and might have to pay them back.
Referred training is training a designated authority approves you to attend. Once you apply for benefits, Service Canada can determine your eligibility to be referred. You may be eligible if you are receiving or eligible for regular or fishing benefits, are approved to attend a program at a designated educational institution or certified institution in Canada, are considered a full-time student as defined by the institution, pay for the training yourself, and meet the long-tenured worker criteria: fewer than 36 weeks of regular or fishing benefits in the 3 years before your claim started, and at least 30% of the annual maximum EI premiums paid in 7 of the last 10 years before the year your claim starts. Provinces, territories, and Indigenous organizations can also refer EI clients to training programs, including apprenticeship training, and to other employment activities designed to help you re-enter the workforce.
Two limits apply to both routes. First, training that lasts longer than the number of weeks of EI benefits you are entitled to does not add extra weeks: you may keep receiving benefits after training ends if you have weeks left, but no additional weeks are provided to cover the whole course. Second, if you leave referred training without good cause, or you are expelled, you may no longer be eligible for benefits; leaving with good cause lets you continue receiving benefits as long as you are available and actively looking for work. If benefits are denied during training, you receive written notice and can request a reconsideration.
Temporary measures to support workers affected by economic changes were in place, and the federal training page points to them. Check the current temporary-measures page before relying on any eased rule, because temporary measures expire.
Provincial programs are where the actual training money usually sits. They run under federal-provincial agreements, so the names, amounts, and entry points differ by province. Four provinces are covered with figures from official pages. The rest are covered in the "other provinces" note below, without figures.
Better Jobs Ontario is Ontario's program for laid-off workers and for people unemployed long enough to need retraining. It provides skills training for in-demand jobs plus financial support, and it aims to help you rejoin the workforce quickly. It covers short-term training of 52 weeks or less, including micro-credential programs, and longer programs of up to 2 years.
You may qualify if you have been laid off and have not been working, have been laid off and are working a temporary job just to cover costs, or have not been laid off but have been unemployed for 12 weeks or longer and are part of a low-income household. You can still apply if you receive Employment Insurance, Ontario Works, or the Ontario Disability Support Program.
You apply by working with an Employment Ontario service provider, who helps you decide if the program is right for you and helps you complete the application. Preparing the application means showing how long you have been unemployed or in the temporary job and looking for work, your level of education, your previous employment and the skills it required, and what skills you want and where you can get trained in them. You also provide information for a financial needs assessment: some of the costs to be covered, such as tuition and books, and your gross household income.
Funding goes up to $28,000 for training that is 1 year or less, and up to $35,000 for programs that are more than 1 year and up to 2 years. It can cover tuition, books, other instructional costs including student fees, supplies and electronic devices, transportation, and a basic living allowance of up to $500 per week. Additional funding may be available for childcare, disability-related supports, living away from home, literacy and essential skills training through the Get Set program, and language training. The amount you receive is based on your individual needs and available funding, and the program supports the most cost-effective training options.
Training is provided by Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology, career colleges, universities, Indigenous Institutes, and school boards. You must research at least 3 training institutions to make sure they offer the training you need, including at least one college of applied arts and technology and one career college. You only need to research 1 institution if you pay for your tuition and training costs on your own.
In Quebec, the route runs through Services Quebec and the Manpower Training measure. If you want to take a training program so you can find a job, you could be eligible for financial assistance under this measure. You could be eligible if you are at least 16 years old and you stopped going to school full-time for at least 24 months, except under certain circumstances considered at your evaluation. Your eligibility also depends on an assessment of your situation, and lack of training must be a significant barrier to getting a job.
The training must allow you to enter the job market as soon as possible. Qualifying training includes a secondary-level vocational training program, a short-term college-level technical training program such as an attestation program, as long as it enables you to enter the labour market, a short university program such as a program leading to a certificate, provided it enables you to re-enter the job market, and on-the-job training in a practice enterprise. The total duration of training activities under the measure is no more than 48 months.
The employment assistance is $400 a week for qualifying training programs and $300 a week for general education, with exceptions possible. The amount depends on your situation and is determined when you register. You may also be entitled to reimbursement of certain expenses, such as daycare expenses, transportation expenses, and training expenses. Apply through Services Quebec: the program page directs you to request information and employment assistance services, and to submit an application online through the employment assistance account.
In British Columbia, the supports run through the WorkBC network. WorkBC centres deliver career planning and transition support, job-search assistance, access to skills training, wage subsidies, and other financial supports, tailored to the individual. There is no single flat funding cap published, so this guide states no cap figure: what you can receive is worked out with the centre on your own plan.
A joint federal-provincial response is currently adding capacity for tariff-affected workers. The Canada–British Columbia Workforce Tariff Response invests $70.4 million over three years to support more than 8,000 workers in softwood lumber, steel, and other directly and indirectly tariff-affected industries, delivered through WorkBC's province-wide network. It covers unemployed workers seeking skills for in-demand jobs, workers whose employers are in Work-Sharing agreements, and employed workers looking to build skills in affected companies and single-industry communities. If your layoff is connected to tariffs or trade disruption, say so at the WorkBC centre: it is the trigger for this stream. If it is not, the regular WorkBC route still applies.
In Alberta, Transition to Employment Services offers eligible Albertans individualized services such as employment placement and supports, job matching, work experience, and short courses to gain and maintain employment. Eligible participants are unemployed and under-employed adults in Alberta, or adults facing imminent lay-off, who are legally entitled to work in Canada and require these services to obtain and maintain employment. The service is provided at no cost to eligible Albertans, in partnership between the Government of Alberta and the Government of Canada.
Alberta also funds foundational learning: the Foundational Learning Assistance Program helps eligible learners cover education and living costs for adult academic upgrading, skills development, pre-apprenticeship, and English as an additional language. A separate, narrow voucher exists for coal workers: the Coal and Electricity Transition Tuition voucher provides up to $12,000 for post-secondary education to affected coal workers, with a deadline of February 28, 2027. It applies only to workers with the specified coal employers and layoff circumstances — if you are not a coal worker, it does not apply to you, and no general Alberta training voucher of that size exists on the pages checked.
For Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, start from the federal EI training page, which links to each jurisdiction's own training and employment page. Open your province's page from there and work through its employment service. Program names and amounts differ, and this guide does not state figures it did not verify. The pattern is the same everywhere: an employment service assesses you, refers or approves training, and the funding follows the assessment — not the other way around.
Two more doors apply when you pay your own way, and both reward keeping records.
Student aid. The federal EI training page notes that you may also be eligible for financial assistance through Canada Student Grants and Loans. Student aid is assessed on one application through your province of residence, covering federal and provincial grants and loans together. Grants do not have to be repaid; loans do. The full process, including applying at least two months early and checking that your school is designated, is in the related tuition guide. If your retraining is a full program at a designated school, check this route before you pay: it can cover costs that neither EI nor a provincial training program covers.
Canada training credit. At tax time, the Canada training credit is a refundable tax credit for eligible training fees. Each year you file an income tax return, the Canada Revenue Agency reviews the criteria and increases your Canada training credit limit by $250 if you qualify, up to a $5,000 lifetime maximum. Your limit for the year is shown on your latest notice of assessment or reassessment, and you keep accumulating the $250 even in years when you make a claim. To claim, complete Schedule 11: the amount is the lesser of your credit limit for the tax year and 50% of the fees claimed on line 32000 of Schedule 11, entered on line 45350 of your return, and the amount claimed reduces your limit for future years. The fees must be paid to an eligible educational institution and be otherwise eligible for the tuition tax credit. Check the CRA page for the current year's criteria before you claim, and keep the institution's receipts: the limit on your notice of assessment, not a summary, is the figure that governs.
The programs above share the same logic, even though their names differ. Training that gets funded leads somewhere specific:
If you already hold credentials from outside Canada, retraining is not always the first move: getting those credentials recognized may be faster and cheaper than starting over. Check the national credentials guide in the related guides before you enrol in a full program for skills you already hold.
No funding cap is stated for British Columbia, Alberta's general programs, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the Atlantic provinces, or the territories, because no official page states a single flat figure. No age or income thresholds are stated for the Canada training credit, because the CRA page states the limit mechanics without them; check the current CRA page for the year's criteria. No "automatic denial" rule is stated for starting training before approval under Better Jobs Ontario, because the Ontario page does not state one; the guide's advice is to get assessed first, which is what the page's own process requires. If a figure matters to your decision, confirm it on the program's own page or with the service that assesses you, on the day you apply.
| Better Jobs Ontario — training of 1 year or less | Up to $28,000 for tuition, books, instructional costs, transportation, and a basic living allowance of up to $500 per week |
|---|---|
| Better Jobs Ontario — training over 1 year, up to 2 years | Up to $35,000 on the same cost categories |
| Quebec Manpower Training — qualifying training | $400 per week in employment assistance, plus possible reimbursement of daycare, transportation, and training expenses |
| Quebec Manpower Training — general education | $300 per week in employment assistance |
| Canada training credit (tax time) | Credit limit grows by $250 per qualifying year to a $5,000 lifetime maximum; claim the lesser of your limit or 50% of eligible fees |
These are maximums and published rates, not promises for any individual. What you receive depends on a needs assessment, available funding, and the program's own rules. British Columbia, Alberta, and the other provinces publish no single flat cap, so no figure is stated for them — confirm the amount with the service that assesses you.
No. Talk to the services first, in this order. If you are on Employment Insurance, declare the training to Service Canada before the course starts. Starting first and declaring later can put benefits already paid at risk if Service Canada decides your availability for work was affected. For provincial funding, get assessed by the provincial employment service before you enrol or pay. Ontario's program assesses the training you propose through an Employment Ontario provider, and the other provinces work the same way, through a WorkBC centre, a Services Quebec office, or Alberta employment services. Money already spent is much harder to get covered than training that has been assessed in advance. The safe sequence is claim, declare, get assessed, then enrol.
Sometimes, and the route matters. If you choose the course yourself, regular EI rules still apply. This is called non-referred training. You must stay capable of and available for work, keep looking for suitable employment, and be ready to adjust or cancel the training if a job offer comes. A referral changes that. When Service Canada, your province or territory, or an Indigenous organization refers you to training, you are treated as available for work while the referral lasts. Referral has its own tests. You need approval for a program at a designated or certified institution in Canada, full-time student status as the institution defines it, you must pay for the training yourself, and you must meet the long-tenured worker criteria. Training that runs longer than your EI entitlement does not add extra weeks of benefits. If you are unsure which route you are on, ask Service Canada before the course starts rather than assuming study itself protects your claim.
It is one of the tests for referred training, defined on the federal training page in two parts. You must have received fewer than 36 weeks of regular or fishing benefits in the 3 years before your claim started, and you must have paid at least 30% of the annual maximum EI premiums in 7 of the last 10 years before the year your claim starts. Both parts have to hold. If you are not sure whether you meet them, the federal page says to apply for EI benefits first and then call Service Canada at 1-800-206-7218. The premium history sits on your own record, and Service Canada confirms it.
Better Jobs Ontario funds skills training for in-demand jobs plus financial support. You may qualify if you were laid off and are not working, were laid off and are working a temporary job just to cover costs, or were not laid off but have been unemployed for 12 weeks or longer and are part of a low-income household. Getting EI, Ontario Works, or ODSP does not bar you. You apply through an Employment Ontario service provider, not directly online. The program pays up to $28,000 for training of 1 year or less and up to $35,000 for programs over 1 year and up to 2 years. Covered costs include tuition, books, instructional costs, student fees, supplies, electronic devices, transportation, and a basic living allowance of up to $500 per week. Extra help may be available for childcare, disability-related supports, living away from home, literacy and essential skills training, and language training. You must research at least 3 training institutions, including at least one college of applied arts and technology and one career college, unless you pay for your tuition and training costs yourself, in which case 1 is enough. What you receive is based on your individual needs and available funding, and the program supports the most cost-effective training options.
Start with your province or territory's employment service. The funded-training route runs through the provinces under agreements with the federal government. In Quebec, the Manpower Training measure through Services Quebec pays $400 a week for qualifying training and $300 a week for general education, for training that gets you into the job market quickly, up to 48 months of training activities. In British Columbia, WorkBC centres deliver career planning, transition support, job-search help, skills training, and wage subsidies. A joint federal-provincial tariff response is investing $70.4 million over three years to support more than 8,000 tariff-affected workers through that network. In Alberta, Transition to Employment Services offers eligible unemployed and under-employed adults placement, job matching, work experience, and short courses at no cost, and Foundational Learning Assistance can help with education and living costs. For Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the Atlantic provinces, and the territories, the federal EI training page links to each jurisdiction's own page — open your province's page from there rather than relying on a national summary, because program names, amounts, and entry points differ and this guide did not verify them all.
Possibly, through the Canada training credit. The Canada Revenue Agency adds $250 to your Canada training credit limit each year you file and qualify, up to a $5,000 lifetime maximum, and the limit for the year is shown on your latest notice of assessment. When you pay eligible tuition and other fees, you claim the lesser of your limit or 50% of the fees claimed on Schedule 11, on line 45350 of your return, and the amount claimed reduces your limit for future years. The credit is refundable, so it can come back as money even if you owe no tax. Check the CRA page for the current year's criteria, including which institutions and fees qualify, and keep the institution's fee receipts. This is separate from the tuition tax credit, and separate from student aid: if the course is at a designated school, also check the student-aid route in the related guide, because grants and loans are assessed on one application through your province of residence.