Windsor-Essex has long been known as a "foodie" community with dozens of wineries, breweries and distilleries and now job seekers have a guide to navigate the growing industries.
Workforce Windsor-Essex spent about a year creating the guide to include a list of in-demand careers and skills needed to get those jobs.
Hiram Walker VP of Operations Jim Stanski says some of the jobs they look for are very specialized.
"We have a number of industries under one roof. We have a powerhouse, we have stationary engineering, power engineering," he says, adding they also have a distillery requiring similar skills.
The facility also uses process operators and has a bottling line using skills similar to an industrial assembly line.
Out in the county, Leamington's economic development officer Jeanine Lassaline-Berglund says the new guide highlights the need for people to work in the growing local industry.
"In Leamington greenhouse vegetable growers make up roughly 2,200 acres and are growing at a predicted rate 5% annually," she says. "In part due to the needs here locally in Ontario, but also mostly in part to the export promise of the U.S. and other countries."
Workforce Windsor has posted full versions of the beverage processing and food processing guides online.
