About The Reno Academy
A Toronto-based skilled trades school built around one purpose: getting people into paid, in-demand work.
The Reno Academy is a Toronto-based skilled trades school with one purpose: helping people who are new to the working world, returning to work, or looking for a fresh start move into paid, in-demand work. We focus on the renovation, landscaping, and property maintenance skills that employers across the Greater Toronto Area are actively hiring for, taught hands-on, in small groups, at a pace that works for real beginners.
Our Mission
We believe a skilled trades career should be open to everyone, regardless of background, prior education, or starting point. The trades are facing a real shortage of job-ready workers, while many capable people are locked out of them by training that assumes experience, a classroom they were never set up to succeed in, or a price they can’t pay. The Reno Academy exists to close that gap: to take someone who has never held a pry bar and give them the practical skills, the safe habits, and the professional confidence to be hired on day one.
What We Do
We run focused, hands-on trades training built around doing the work, not reading about it. Roughly 70% of every program is practical, real tools, real materials, real tasks. Participants learn professional job-site conduct, how to identify and use common tools, how to lift safely, how to carry out a clean and methodical demolition, and how to power wash, repair, and finish a deck or fence. These are the everyday competencies that renovation, landscaping, and property-maintenance employers tell us new hires most often lack.
Our flagship program is the Site Squad Bootcamp LE: an intensive two-day course that takes someone from complete beginner to job-ready in 16 hands-on hours. It ends in a recognized certificate of completion, and includes a dedicated interview-skills module so graduates can confidently land the work their new skills qualify them for.
Who We Serve
The Reno Academy was designed from the ground up to welcome people who are too often left out of trades training:
- People new to the workforce: youth and recent graduates taking a confident first step.
- Career changers: adults moving into the trades from another field.
- Newcomers to Canada: practical, hands-on learning that doesn’t depend on prior credentials.
- Adults on social assistance: a direct, supported path toward paid employment.
- Persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities: delivered with patient, one-step-at-a-time instruction, visual reference cards, and small classes for individualized support.
No experience and no special education are required. What you bring is the willingness to show up, pay attention, and try, we handle the rest.
Our Approach
Everything we do is built to help real beginners succeed:
- 70% hands-on. You learn by doing, not by watching slides.
- Small classes of 6–10. Personal attention in a supportive, judgment-free environment.
- Plain-language materials. Clear, numbered steps and illustrated reference cards, no textbooks required.
- Show, then do. Coaches demonstrate first, then guide you, then let you try it yourself.
- Continuous, supportive assessment. No single high-pressure test, your skills are observed and encouraged throughout.
Accessibility & Inclusion
Inclusive delivery isn’t an add-on at The Reno Academy, it’s how the program was built. Instruction is concrete and literal, one instruction at a time. Written quizzes can be completed verbally for anyone who finds tests difficult. Participants are paired for hands-on tasks to build confidence, and progress is celebrated one step at a time. For participants with intellectual or developmental disabilities, pacing has built-in buffer time and modifications so that partial mastery is still recognized and certifiable.
For Employers & Referring Agencies
Employers: our graduates arrive understanding professional job-site conduct, basic tools, safe lifting, demolition cleanup, and deck and fence maintenance, ready to contribute from their first shift, just in time for the busy spring and summer season.
Caseworkers, support workers, and referring agencies: we currently partner with The Career Foundation, a non-profit, registered charity providing employment services across the GTHA, and welcome additional referral partners. The program is built for inclusive, accessible delivery, with continuous and supportive assessment rather than a single high-pressure test. We’re glad to discuss placing participants and supporting them through the program.
Start Your Trades Career in Toronto
Spots in each cohort are limited to keep classes small and supportive. Reserve your place in the next Site Squad Bootcamp LE, or reach out with any questions, we’re happy to help you find the right starting point.