Effective Date: [September 1, 2021 Last Updated]

 

1. Acceptance of these Website Terms and Conditions of Use

Support Ontario Youth (“SOY”) is an organization with a mission to support apprentices, employers, and all stakeholders in the skilled trades industry by streamlining and simplifying the apprenticeship journey. SOY’s goal is to modernize the apprenticeship pathway by becoming a complete and transparent resource for those looking to enter the skilled trades.

A skilled trades career path requires hands-on work and specialty knowledge. Skilled trades workers build and maintain infrastructure like our homes, schools, hospitals, roads, farms and parks. They keep industries running and perform many services we rely on every day, like hairstyling, food preparation or social services. There are more than 140 skilled trades in Ontario and they fall under four sectors: construction, industrial, transportation and service. More information about the skilled trades can be found at https://www.ontario.ca/page/skilled-trades/.

There are many pathways to becoming a skilled trades worker. One of which is through a regulated program called an apprenticeship. An apprenticeship is an opportunity to work and learn under the direction of experienced workers while undertaking other educational and training requirements.

SOY endeavours to help guide and assist those wanting to become a skilled trades worker through providing information, programming and services to and connecting apprentices, employers, and other stakeholders in the skilled trades industry. In doing so, SOY works closely with employers and apprentices to help navigate the apprenticeship pathway. SOY:

• • provides information to apprentices on all aspects of their apprenticeship, including safety and job opportunities, and provides them with mentoring that will help prepare them to enter the skills trade confidently;
  • connects job-ready apprentices to great job opportunities;
  • provides on-going continuous mentorship to ensure their apprenticeship continues efficiently; and
  • supports employers in finding great candidates.

It is SOY’s goal to provide access to accurate and correct information about programs and training opportunities available to all and mentor individual candidates on the best path for them. SOY offers a digital platform on its website that is purpose-built to monitor and document the development, application and mastery of skills by apprentices and to offer a seamless technology experience for the apprentice to keep them on track in their journey. 

In addition, SOY provides organizational clients with effective information management and analytics solutions, in particular for management of apprenticeship programs.

To be clear, SOY is not a skilled trades regulatory body or an employer of apprentices but rather a service provider connecting stakeholders in the skilled trades industry.

This Terms of Use Agreement (the “Terms of Use” or “Agreement”) describes the terms and conditions applicable to your access and use of this website (the “Website”) and to any of SOY’s services. This Website is owned and operated by SOY. You accept this Agreement by using the Website. If you do not agree to this Agreement, you must not use the Website. SOY may revise this Agreement at any time by posting the revised Terms of Use on the Website, and you agree that your use of the Website after such changes will constitute your acceptance of such changes. These Terms of Use apply to all users and visitors of the Website.

SOY is based in the province of Ontario in Canada. SOY provides this Website for use only by persons located in Canada. This Website is not intended for use by persons outside Canada. If you access the Website from outside Canada, you are responsible for compliance with local laws of your jurisdiction, and SOY bears no responsibility or liability for your use.

You confirm that you are more than 18 years of age, or possess parental or guardian consent to access and use this Website. You understand and confirm that when using this Website, you must abide by and comply with, these Terms of Use.

 

2. SOY may Make Changes to, Suspend or Withdraw the Website

SOY may make changes to, suspend, block or remove the Website, or any content and/or resources available through the Website (the “Content”), and/or the services, described on the Website at any time. SOY is under no obligation to update the Website or its content.

SOY reserves the right to suspend, block or remove access to the Website by any user for any breach of the Terms of Use, without notice, at any time.

 

3. Intellectual Property Rights and Ownership

You understand and agree that the Website and its entire contents, features, and functionality, including, but not limited to, all information, software, code, text, displays, graphics, photographs, video, audio, design, presentation, selection, and arrangement, are owned by SOY, its licensors, or other providers of such material and are protected in all forms by intellectual property laws including without limitation, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, and any other proprietary rights.

All rights not expressly granted to you in these Terms of Use are reserved and retained by SOY or its licensors, suppliers, publishers, rights holders, or other content providers. You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit for any commercial purpose, any portion of the Website or its contents other than as expressly authorized by SOY in writing. You hereby acknowledge and agree that, as between SOY and you, all right, title, and interest in and to the Website and its content shall be owned exclusively by SOY. Use of the Website or its content in any way not expressly permitted by this Agreement is prohibited. Any unlawful use will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

 

4. Permitted Uses

You may only use the Website and the Content for your personal and non-commercial use. So long as you agree and comply with the terms of this Agreement, and unless this Agreement is otherwise terminated by SOY, SOY invites you to view and/or print a single copy of the Website and the Content. You agree that you will not remove or modify any acknowledgements, credits or legal notices contained on the Website or in the Content. As a condition of use, SOY status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of Content must always be acknowledged and attributed.

Special terms may apply to some services offered on the Website and may be posted in connection with the applicable service, feature or activity. For example, you may be required to sign a registered training contract for certain skilled trades programs, register for a user account on a third party website and/or agree to a code of conduct for participation in one of SOY’s educational or training programs. Any such terms are in addition to this Agreement and, in the event of a conflict, any such terms shall prevail.

 

5. Prohibited Uses

You agree not to access the Website by any means other than through a standard web browser on a computer or mobile device. You further agree that you will not use this Website to damage, disable, overburden, hack into, reverse engineer, interfere with, collect, steal or download information, or impair the Website, or impede or obstruct any other party's use and enjoyment of it.

You will not, nor allow anyone else to use the Website in a manner that exceeds reasonable request volume, constitutes excessive or abusive usage, or results in a denial-of-service attack, or otherwise fails to comply or is inconsistent with any part of this Agreement. In addition, you will not, nor allow anyone to, introduce any viruses, computer code or other computer instructions or techniques that erase data or programming, infect, disrupt, damage, disable, or shut down the Website, the server on which the Website is stored or any server, computer or database connected to the Website, including, without limitation, its security or user data.

You must not, nor permit anyone else to, misuse the Website by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not, nor permit anyone else to, attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Website, the server on which the Website is stored or any server, computer or database connected to the Website. You must not attack the Website via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the law of applicable jurisdiction. SOY may report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and SOY may co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use the Website will cease immediately.

 

6. Employment Relationships / Training Contracts

SOY acts solely as an education and a service provider connecting stakeholders in the skilled trades industry. SOY’s objective is to manage the apprentice’s journey, so they can complete their required training in a timely manner. As the group sponsor, SOY will hold the Registered Training Agreement (RTA) for each apprentice accessing SOY services. SOY is not an agent or representative of the apprentice or the employer. SOY does not offer employment of apprentices and is not an employer of individuals on the path to becoming a skilled tradesperson. SOY does not provide any legal advice regarding the registered training contracts and associated agreements.

If you are a user interested in becoming an employer contractor, you will be required to sign a Memorandum of Understanding agreement with SOY. The Memorandum of Understanding between SOY and the employer contractors, is intended to outline and gain agreement on the roles, responsibilities and expectations associated with implementing and operating an apprenticeship group sponsor model through a collaborative partnership.

The apprentice will sign a Registered Training Agreement (RTA) with SOY to ensure that the apprentice is provided with workplace-based and classroom training required as part of the apprenticeship program for the selected Trade.

In accepting and signing any registered training contract and associated agreements, the apprentice acknowledges that they have reviewed and understood its terms and have been provided the opportunity to seek independent legal advice regarding those agreements. The apprentice understands and agrees that SOY is not responsible for any disputes that may arise regarding any employment relationships between the apprentice and any third party employer or the apprentice and any third party individual.

 

7. User Accounts

To access certain Website features, you may have to register and/or login to your user account. You are solely responsible for the activity that occurs in your user account and the accuracy of the information provided. You must keep your account user name or ID, password, challenge question(s) and answer(s) secure. If you see activity that was not performed by you, if you have lost access to your account, or suspect a security breach or unauthorized use of your account, you must contact SOY immediately. SOY has the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by SOY, at any time, if in SOY’s reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these Terms of Use.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access the Website through your internet connection are aware of these Terms of Use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

 

8. Uploading Content to the Website and Associated Sites

Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload content to the Website, or to an associated application or website, or to make contact with other users of the Website, you must comply with the content standards set out in these Terms of Use and any other standards or terms of use presented to you. These content standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to the Website and any affiliated website (“Contribution”). These standards must be complied with in spirit as well as to the letter. The standards apply to each part of any Contribution as well as to its whole. SOY will determine whether a Contribution breaches these Terms of Use.

A Contribution must:

• Be accurate (where it states facts).
• Be genuinely held (where it states opinions).
• Comply with the law applicable in Canada and in any country from which it is posted.

A Contribution must not:

• Be defamatory of any person.
• Be obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory.
• Promote sexually explicit material.
• Promote violence.
• Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.
• Infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person.
• Be likely to deceive any person.
• Breach any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.
• Promote any illegal activity.
• Be in contempt of court.
• Be threatening, abusive or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.
• Be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person.
• Impersonate any person, or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person.
• Give the impression that the Contribution emanates from SOY, if this is not the case.
• Advocate, promote, incite any party to commit, or assist any unlawful or criminal act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.
• Contain a statement which you know or believe, or have reasonable grounds for believing, that members of the public to whom the statement is, or is to be, published are likely to understand as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.
• Contain any advertising or promote any services or web links to other sites, unless expressly authorized in writing by SOY.

You warrant that any such Contribution does comply with those standards and any others presented to you, and you will be liable to SOY and you will indemnify SOY for any breach of this warranty. This means you will be responsible for any loss or damage SOY suffers as a result of your breach of this warranty.

You are solely responsible for securing and backing up your content.

Any content you upload to the Website will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. You retain all of your ownership rights in your content, but you are required to grant SOY and other users of the Website a limited licence to use, store and copy that content and to distribute and make it available to third parties.  When you upload or post content to the Website, you grant SOY and other users of the Website the following rights to use that content:

a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, licence to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform such user-generated content in connection with the service provided by the Website and across different media, including use relating to promoting the Website or its services.

SOY also has the right to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any content posted or uploaded by you to the Website constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy.

 

9. Breach of these Terms of Use

If you fail to comply with these Terms of Use, SOY may, in its sole discretion, consider you in breach of the Terms of Use and may take all or any of the following actions without notice to you:

• Immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use the Website.
• Immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any Contribution uploaded by you to the Website.
• Warning to you.
• Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach.
• Further legal action against you.
• Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as SOY reasonably considers necessary or as required by law.

SOY excludes any liability for all actions SOY may take in response to breaches of these Terms of Use. The actions SOY may take are not limited to those described above, and SOY may take any other action SOY reasonably deems appropriate.

 

 10. Links to Other Sites

The Website may contain links to websites operated by other parties. SOY provides these links to other websites as a convenience, and use of these sites is at your own risk. The linked sites are not under the control of SOY, and SOY is not responsible for the content available on the other sites. Such links do not imply SOY’s endorsement or approval of information or material on any other site and SOY disclaims all liability with regard to your access to and use of such linked websites.

 

11. Links To The Website

You may link to the Website, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage SOY’s reputation or take advantage of it. You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on SOY’s part where none exists. You must not establish a link to the Website in any website that is not owned by you. The Website must not be framed on any other website. SOY reserves the right to withdraw linking permission without notice. The website in which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out above. If you wish to link to or make any use of the Content on the Website other than that set out above, please contact us at info@supportontarioyouth.ca.  

 

12. About the Information on this Website

The Content available on the Website is intended to be a general information resource and is provided solely on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis. You are encouraged to confirm the information contained herein. SOY makes no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the Content on the Website is accurate, complete or up to date.  

 

13. Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability

SOY makes no warranty or representation, whether express or implied, statutory or otherwise, including warranties of merchantability, merchantable quality, security, fitness for a particular purpose, title, or non-infringement as to the accuracy, completeness or reliability of any Content or services available through this Website and SOY in general. SOY does not guarantee that this Website will have uninterrupted service, be error-free, be typographically accurate, be data reporting accurate, that defects will be corrected, that new functionality will be added, or that it is free from viruses, malware, or other harmful services. You are responsible for verifying the information before relying on it. You are responsible for providing your own anti-virus, firewalls, security and/or VPN services, to protect your own information, devices, network, applications and services. Use of this Website and the Content on this Website is solely at your own risk. This disclaimer of warranty may not be valid in some jurisdictions and you may have warranty rights under law which may not be waived or disclaimed.

In no event will SOY be liable to you for any indirect, special, incidental, punitive, exemplary or consequential damages of any character, including damages for loss of goodwill, loss of profits, business interruption, data loss, work stoppage, or computer failure or malfunction. In any case, SOY’s aggregate liability for any and all claims under these Terms of Use shall not exceed CAD$10.00. The foregoing limitations, exclusions and disclaimers shall apply regardless of whether such liability arises from any claim based upon contract, warranty, tort (including negligence), strict liability or otherwise, or pursuant to any legal doctrine, and whether or not SOY has been advised of the possibility of such loss or damage. Insofar as applicable law prohibits any limitation on liability herein, the parties agree that such limitation will be automatically modified, but only to the extent so as to make the limitation compliant with applicable law. You agree that the limitations on liabilities set forth herein are agreed allocations of risk and such limitations will apply notwithstanding the failure of essential purpose of any limited remedy.

 

14. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold SOY, its affiliates, and their respective officers, agents and employees, harmless from any loss, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable legal fees, due to or arising out of your use of the Website, the Content or the resources available through the Website and/or breach of this Agreement.

 

15. Legal Information

If there is a dispute, you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in the Province of Ontario, Canada. These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario, and the laws of Canada applicable therein. Prior to this escalation it is highly recommended that you contact SOY directly, to help resolve any issues or queries that you may have. Both parties agree to communicate and negotiate first and foremost, attempt mediation services next, and at last attempt to use legal counsel and the Canadian court system.

You may not assign these Terms of Use, transfer rights, or delegate any obligations under these Terms of Use, in whole or in part, whether voluntary or by law, without SOY’s prior written consent.

These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between you and SOY and are legally binding. If for any reason a court of the competent jurisdiction finds any provision or portion of these Terms of Use to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, such determination shall not impair or affect the validity, legality or enforceability of the remaining provisions hereof, and each provision is hereby declared to be separate, severable and distinct.

 

16. Miscellaneous

These Terms of Use are subject to SOY Privacy Policy. By using our website, you acknowledge and consent to the use of your information as described in and in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

 

17. Customer Support

SOY is committed to providing superior customer service to its users. You are welcome to contact SOY through its Contact Information listed on the Website.

Note that from time-to-time, website maintenance or customer support may be temporarily suspended or removed. Operations will resume once it is viable, or when the Website maintenance is complete.

 

18. Questions or Corrections

SOY is a society registered under the laws of the Province of Ontario, Canada. SOY’s address is 50 Ronson Drive, Suite 180, Etobicoke, Ontario, M9W 6N6. Questions about these Terms of Use may be made in writing to info@supportontarioyouth.ca.