The Youth Employment Strategy is the Government of Canada’s commitment to help youth make a successful transition to the workplace.
With annual funding of approximately $300 million, YES helps youth—particularly those facing barriers to employment—obtain career information, develop skills, find jobs and stay employed. YES includes the Skills Link and Career Focus programs, and the Canada Summer Jobs initiative, which creates thousands of job opportunities for students every summer. Since 2006, the Youth Employment Strategy has helped more than 555 000 young people upgrade their skills, to the benefit of the Canadian economy.
Skills Link helps youth facing barriers to employment—including single parents, youth with disabilities, young newcomers and youth in rural and remote areas—to develop the skills and gain the experience needed to find a job or the confidence to return to school. Skills Link is receiving over $4.9 million through this Economic Action Plan initiative to connect youth with in-demand jobs. Since 2006, the Skills Link initiative has helped over 179 000 young people find better employment or return to school for skills upgrading.
Career Focus provides funding to employers to hire young post-secondary graduates to give them career-related work experience and help them acquire skills to transition into the job market. Career Focus is receiving over $19 million through this Economic Action Plan initiative to connect youth with in-demand jobs. Since 2006, the Career Focus initiative has helped over 26 000 post-secondary students acquire crucial skills and transition into the labour market.
Canada Summer Jobs provides funding to not-for-profit organizations, public sector employers and small businesses with 50 or fewer employees to create summer job opportunities for young people aged 15 to 30 years who are full-time students intending to return to their studies in the next school year.
To learn more about Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy and other youth employment initiatives, please visit youth.gc.ca.
