PTP’s vision is to empower people to learn and find work they value. In our fast-moving world, that’s a tough challenge.

Although our participants demonstrate a wide range of strengths and skills, most face significant barriers to learning and finding decent work, including precarious employment, low pay, health and wellness issues, and the high costs of housing, child care, and transit. New immigrants, racialized groups, and single-parent families have additional challenges. Many of our participants live below the poverty line. These complex barriers are not easily resolved, yet for more than 25 years, PTP has been finding ways to help participants to move forward to better lives and brighter futures.

As you read through this report, it will become clear that our wonderful staff are the engine that drive our work. Their creativity, positivity and compassion underlie all of our programs and services. We are educators first and foremost: teachers and trainers. We are leaders in workforce literacy and essential skills program design and delivery, teaching technical skills but also workplace-readiness skills like communication, creative thinking, flexibility and problem solving. Our integrated approach to programming allows us to create seamless pathways tailored to each participant’s changing needs. We recognize that they need support along the way, so we are also mentors, counsellors and cheerleaders. And we use advocacy, as in this year’s $15 and Fairness campaign, as a platform for teaching communication skills and giving participants a voice in the issues that matter most to them.

We don’t do this good work alone. Partnering with like-minded agencies and services has been a critical part of our work for many years. By sharing our resources and tools, we broaden the reach of our programs and extend our impact across Canada.

Over the years, we have learned the importance of engaging employers in developing innovative programs and services to meet their requirements. In this report, you will read about Elevate, our exciting new program created with employers in the food processing industry. With eight weeks of classroom studies and a two-week paid job placement, Elevate prepares participants for work in one of Canada’s fastest growing industries.

At PTP, we are change-makers, creating impact each day by adapting to the emerging needs of our participants and the workplace. As we look ahead to 2019 and beyond, we are excited by the many opportunities we see to expand and refine our programs, engage our stakeholders and employers, and continue to set participants on a path to the better future they seek.