Protein Industries Canada opens call for Skills and Talent-themed projects under Capacity Building stream

As Canada approaches its $25 billion potential in the ingredient manufacturing, food processing and bioproducts sector, an increased need for access to skills and talent among growing companies is emerging. To help address this gap, Protein Industries Canada is launching a new call for projects under its Capacity Building programming stream.

The call, themed around the stream’s priority area of “Access to Skills and Talent”, invites skills development and training organizations to propose new approaches to addressing skills and talent challenges faced by Canada’s ingredient manufacturing, food processing and bioproducts sector. Projects should focus on programming that addresses any of the following actions:

• Build talent pipelines for roles employers need to scale;
• Fill existing training gaps in universities and college programs, such as bioprocessing or food science for engineers;
• Connect technical roles with food creators to develop high-quality products that meet customers' needs;
• Provide participants with the work experience employers seek in new hires through experiential or on-the-job training opportunities; and
• Enable employers to build in-house training capacity for new hires or existing staff for internal movement. These programs will support bringing in non-traditional hires to fill skills gaps.

EOIs will be accepted from Sept. 19 to Nov. 13, 2024, and will be reviewed following the call. EOIs must be submitted by at least one Protein Industries Canada member, but consortia of at least two Protein Industries Canada members is encouraged.

Interested partners are asked to visit our Capacity Building page and fill out the form at the bottom of the page. If the project meets initial eligibility requirements, a member from Protein Industries Canada’s Program team will reach out to schedule a preliminary meeting. This first meeting must be held prior to an EOI being submitted.

In addition to a call for Capacity Building projects, Protein Industries Canada is accepting EOIs under its Technology Leadership stream on an ongoing basis. Projects must demonstrate measurable outcomes related to the development, scale-up and commercialization of innovations in the priority areas of Germplasm Development, Ingredient Manufacturing, Food Processing, Feed Products and Co-product Development. More information can be found on our Technology Leadership page.