KITCHENER -- The provincial government is helping out Conestoga College in a big way when it comes to funding for skilled trades.

Minister of Labour Monte McNaughton was in Kitchener on Friday to announced that the province is investing $9.2 million into training.

"On any given day there are more than 18,000 vacant jobs in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Barrie region," he said at a media event.

"Those are paycheques that are ready to be collected but the workers just aren't there."

The money will allow in-class training for more than 6,000 apprentices in 21 trades over the course of this year and next.

Training will be done in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph.

The province is also investing almost $750,000 to fund three of the college's pre-apprenticeship training projects.