CERIC funds new project on legitimate opportunities to work from home

A new project supported by CERIC will produce webinars for career development professionals and others interested in engaging a virtual workforce so that clients can access legitimate work-from-home opportunities.

The project is being undertaken in partnership with the Employment and Education Centre (EEC) in Brockville, ON. In response to repeated inquiries from clients, the EEC undertook preliminary research to answer the question: “Are there really legitimate opportunities to work from home?” The answer is a resounding yes; the number of employers and independent contractor relationships as well as the variety of the skills needed was a surprise. But the centre also found well-designed scams, willing to prey on the unemployed and clients lacking the digital fluency to discern the legitimate opportunities from the scams.

Given this gap in knowledge, the project will develop a series of train-the-trainer webinars on Legitimate Opportunities to Work from Home (WFH). The training will educate career professionals and provide them the tools (slides, resources and marketing materials) so that they can offer workshops to their clients.

According to Statistics Canada, 1.8 million Canadians are currently working from home, representing 11.2% of paid employees. Career professionals need to develop the skills, knowledge and expertise related to a trend that is predicted to increase. The benefits to corporations in terms of productivity, and savings is expected to only encourage this work-from-home trend.

By educating career professionals and giving them ready-made tools, they are empowered to work confidently with their clients, opening up new options for employment for a number of traditionally underserved client groups including people with disabilities, rural communities, Aboriginal communities, newcomers, caregivers and older workers.

The train-the-trainer webinars will be offered monthly. Find out about upcoming webinar dates by visiting the Learning section of the ContactPoint website or contact Anne-Marie Rolfe at annemarie@eecentre.com or 613.498.2111 x261

Learn more about the project.