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Financial Support for Professional Education

If you are looking for financial support on your lifelong learning journey, there are a number of tax credits and grant programs available to you and your teams. If you have any questions about funding amounts, eligibility, or other details, please connect directly with the organization that administers the funding.

 

T2202 tax slip

Please note we do not issue a T2202 tax slip for our WatSPEED courses. Per government regulations, only courses that require admission to the University are eligible.

 

Canada-Ontario job grant | Recieve up to $10,000 per person

Amount

Employers can get up to $10,000 in government support per person for training costs.

Employers with 100 or more employees need to contribute 50 per cent of the training costs. Small employers with fewer than 100 employees need to contribute 16.67 per cent of training costs.
Eligibility / who can apply

The Canada-Ontario Job Grant provides direct financial support to individual employers or employer consortia that wish to purchase training for their employees. It is available to small, medium and large businesses with a plan to deliver short-term training to existing and new employees.

An employer must:

  • make minimum cash contributions towards training costs
  • employ the individual selected for training. Higher priority is given to employers who are training and hiring unemployed individuals. If the employer has hired an unemployed individual to fill a vacancy, the offer of employment can be conditional upon the individual having completed training and subject to the employer’s regular probationary period
  • be licensed to operate in Ontario
  • be applying for training that is delivered in Ontario and is related to a job that is also located in Ontario
  • comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Employment Standards Act
  • maintain appropriate Workplace Safety and Insurance Board or private workplace safety insurance coverage
  • have adequate third-party general liability insurance, as advised by its insurance broker
  • comply with all applicable federal and provincial human rights legislation, regulations, and any other relevant standards.

For employer groups that want to apply for training supports the government offers a COJG Consortium Stream. The Consortium Stream allows a group of employers (two or more employers) to pool their resources to support common training objectives and goals. To apply as a consortium, the intermediary organization needs to ensure all the participating employers and trainees meet COJG requirements, and are able to make their required contribution towards the training cost. Most organizations acting as an intermediary are eligible for administrative funding equal to 15 per cent of the government contribution.

More information can be found on the Government of Ontario website.
How to apply Apply on the Government of Ontario website.
Application deadline Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis. Note that the application processing will take roughly two weeks.
Contact For further information, please contact the Employment Ontario Contact Centre. Call toll-free (no charge): 1-800-387-5656 or through the TTY number: 1-866-533-6339 or email at EmploymentHotlineInquiries@ontario.ca.

Amount

Starting in 2019, an eligible individual will be able to accumulate $250 in each year, up to a maximum of $5,000 in a lifetime. The Canada training credit limit for a year is equal to their Canada training credit limit for the previous year minus any Canada training credit claimed in the previous year plus the annual accumulation of $250 in the previous year.

In 2019 and subsequent tax years, an individual who is at least 25 years old and less than 65 years old at the end of the year can accumulate $250 towards the individual’s Canada training credit limit (for the next year), provided they satisfy all of the following conditions with respect to the year:

  • file a tax return for the year;
  • be resident in Canada throughout the year;
  • have a total of $10,000 or more of income from:
    • maternity and parental benefits, and
    • working income (income from an office or employment, business income, the taxable part of scholarship income and research grants, the tax-exempt part of earnings of status Indians and emergency service volunteers, and income under the Wage Earner Protection Program Act).
  • have individual net income for the year that does not exceed the top of the third tax bracket in that year ($147,667 in 2019).
Eligibility / who can apply

You can claim the Canada training credit for a taxation year if you satisfy all the following conditions:

  • you file an income tax and benefit return for the year;
  • your Canada training credit limit for the year is greater than zero;
  • you are resident in Canada throughout the year;
  • tuition or fees are paid to an eligible educational institution in respect of the year; and
  • the tuition and fees are otherwise eligible for the existing tuition tax credit.

Note that individuals under the age of 26 or over the age of 65 at the end of a year have a Canada training credit limit of zero and thus cannot claim the Canada training credit for tuition and fees incurred in respect of that year.

More information can be found on the Government of Canada website.
How to apply The Canada training credit claimed on your income tax and benefit return will reduce your tax owing. If the credit is more than your tax owing, you will get a refund for the difference.
Application deadline Annual income tax submission deadline. 
Contact

If you have questions about the Canada Training Credit, please contact the Canada Revenue Agency:

 

Amount

Receive up to $2,000 per year in relief for 50 per cent of a person’s eligible expenses related to tuition and other fees paid to an eligible educational institution in Canada for courses taken in 2021 or 2022 and/or fees paid to certain bodies in respect of an occupational, trade, or professional examination taken in 2021 or 2022.

Note that the Ontario Jobs Training Tax Credit is a temporary, refundable personal income tax credit for 2021 and 2022 only.
Eligibility / who can apply

The Ontario Jobs Training Tax Credit is a temporary, refundable personal income tax credit that helps workers get training that may be needed for a career shift, for re-training, or to sharpen their skills.

The Ontario Jobs Training Tax Credit has the same eligibility requirements as the Canada Training Credit available on the federal tax return.

To claim the credit for 2021 or 2022, you must:

  • have a positive Canada Training Credit limit for that year
  • be an Ontario resident on December 31 of that year
  • be aged 26 to 65 years old at the end of that year, and
  • meet the other requirements set out in the federal Income Tax Act for at least one of 2019, 2020 or 2021.

More information can be found on the Government of Ontario website.
How to apply You can claim the credit on your personal Income Tax and Benefit Return.
Application deadline Annual income tax submission deadline. 
Contact

The Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) is now offering funding opportunities for micro-credential courses and programs at Ontario colleges, universities, and Indigenous Institutes. 

Micro-credentials are rapid online, and sometimes on-the-job, training programs. They are designed, often with input from business sectors, to provide opportunities for those in the workforce to enhance or upgrade skills. 

The University of Waterloo has a number of approved micro-credential courses and programs listed on the OSAP website.

Get more details about OSAP on the Student Awards and Financial Aid Office website.

Windmill Microlending empowers skilled immigrants and refugees to achieve career success and economic prosperity. By providing microloans up to $15,000, Windmill Microlending helps clients get the Canadian licensing or training required to work in their field, or get a position that matches their level of education, skills and experience.

Get more details about the Windmill Microlending program on the Government of Canada website.