Duke Heights' innovative strategy for bridging the skills gap
by Andrew Seale
DUKE Heights isn’t like other Business Improvement Areas (BIAs). For one, it’s big, the second-largest BIA in North America, in fact. And it’s big in numbers.
Stretching from Downsview Park to York University at the northernmost tip of Toronto, the DUKE Heights area (DUKE is an amalgamation of the first two letters from Dufferin and Keele) the area is home base for 2,500 businesses encompassing five sectors – from food and furniture to health, pharmaceuticals and professional services – employing 31,000.
In a sense, the BIA is a microcosm of the Canadian labour market in general. And like the Canadian labour market, businesses in DUKE Heights are experiencing a fundamental disconnect between the skills needed and the jobs available. Which is why the BIA is undertaking an innovative project to develop a sector-based workforce strategy.
The BIA Innovation Fund provides grants to Toronto's BIAs to test innovative and creative solutions to local challenges. Successful projects will be profiled as case studies and shared through our BIA network.
Awards range from $5,000 to $25,000. Only exceptional projects that push the limits of what BIAs can do will receive funding, so bring us your best ideas!
