A grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation is going to help more women in Windsor-Essex learn more computer skills.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation has announced a $150,000 Resilient Communities Fund grant for Women's Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor or WEST.
The funding will support staffing costs, renovations, and equipment purchases for safe in-person delivery of a digital skills training program.
New equipment included upgraded computers, desks, and chairs, along with other technological enhancements, including a Smartboard.
Women's Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor provides training for women to improve their employability in the workforce or further their education.
Rose Anguiano Hurst, Executive Director of Women's Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor. Dec. 14, 2022. (Photo by Rusty Thomson)
Rose Anguiano Hurst, Executive Director of WEST, says the updates in the computer lab were important given how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the digital skills needed in the workforce.
"So much training happens now digitally and online. The computers were had were probably 10-years-old or older, they still worked but not at the speed or capacity that we needed them to work," she says.
Anguiano Hurst says this will help prepare people for the workforce.
"We needed to have equipment that was used out in the community. With the new equipment its going to be easier for us to work both in person and offer some hybrid online services," she adds.
Since 1987, WEST has provided 50,000 women in Windsor-Essex with support and programs to aid them in securing employment, enhancing their skills, along with providing newcomer and immigrant women with services designed to help them adapt and integrate into Canadian culture and their new community.
Women's Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor Inc. is located at 647 Ouellette Ave., Suite 201 in Windsor.