Ottawa will spend about $500 million to help long-tenured workers upgrade their skills to help them find new jobs.

Human Resources Minister Diane Finley says the improvement to the employment insurance program will benefit 40,000 Canadians.

A long-tenured worker, said Finley, is someone who has been in one type of job for a long time and requires new skills to transition to a new field

Long-tenured workers will also receive an extension of EI benefits if they participate in longer-term training of up to two years.

Another initiative will help between 5,000 and 10,000 people by providing EI benefits sooner to eligible workers who spend all or part of their severance package on training themselves for another job.

In Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff again called for major changes to employment insurance.

Ignatieff wants to see a national minimum threshold of 360 hours to collect EI benefits - something Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called "an absurdity."