Backgrounder: The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy

Program overview

The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) is a horizontal, Government of Canada initiative led by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and delivered in partnership with 11 other federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations.

The Strategy aims to provide youth (aged 15 to 30), especially those facing barriers to employment, with opportunities to receive employment supports, gain work experience and develop the skills needed to find and keep quality jobs.

ESDC delivers two programs under the Strategy:

1. The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program supports youth in overcoming barriers to employment, with a focus on those furthest from opportunity (as in those not in education, employment or training). The program provides funding to organizations to deliver individually tailored supports and services with the goal of equipping youth with the tools needed to succeed on their employment journeys. For example, as part of their employment programming, youth may receive mentorship, skills development and training, wraparound supports (such as dependant care support, mental health counselling) and paid work experiences. 
2. Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) is a national program delivered solely by ESDC. CSJ supports employers from not-for-profit organizations and the public sector, as well as private sector organizations with 50 or fewer full-time employees, to provide quality summer employment opportunities for youth (aged 15 to 30). CSJ provides youth with opportunities to develop and improve their skills. For some, CSJ is a first job experience that informs future education, training and career choices. The program is responsive to national and local priorities, as well as labour market needs.
    

Youth who face barriers often include:

• Indigenous youth
• Black and other racialized youth
• 2SLGBTQI+ youth
• youth with disabilities
• youth who are early leavers from high school
• youth living in low-income households
• youth experiencing houselessness or precarious housing
• youth living in rural, remote, northern or fly-in communities
   

For these youth, barriers often intersect, making them more likely to be among those involuntarily not in employment, education or training.

YESS Program call for proposals

On October 4, 2023, ESDC launched a call for proposals for the YESS Program. This call for proposals aimed to fund new projects that support youth facing barriers to employment. For the first time, it included a Youth with Disabilities stream to increase the availability of inclusive programming to support youth with disabilities and address the unique employment challenges they face. Over 30% of projects selected for funding are expected to address the unique employment challenges faced by youth with disabilities, surpassing the original target of 20% under the new Youth with Disabilities stream.

Also new is a requirement that all projects serve youth furthest from employment in some capacity, including youth not in employment, education or training, and youth facing multiple and compounding barriers to employment. Other priority groups include Indigenous youth, 2SLGBTQI+ youth, Black and other racialized youth, and youth in official language minority communities.

ESDC is proud that through this call for proposals, the Government will be supporting more than 200 new projects over the next four years that will help improve labour market outcomes for more than 22,000 youth facing barriers to employment.