Funding: Career Focus Local and Regional Projects - Eligibility

Current status: Closed

Learn more about other funding opportunities

Who Can Apply

Eligible applicants include:

  • not-for-profit organizations;
  • municipal governments;
  • Aboriginal organizations (including band councils, tribal councils and self-government entities);
  • for-profit organizationsFootnote 1; and,
  • provincial and territorial governments, institutions, agencies and Crown Corporations.

Career Focus – Community Coordinator (CF-CC)

A Career Focus Community Coordinator (CF-CC) is a contribution recipient that receives funding to enter into its own agreements with eligible participants and employers to undertake activities that further the objectives of the CF program.

ESDC may have an agreement with a CF-CC to deliver work experience activities. As well, advanced employment skills activities may be included in, but not the sole activity of, a CF-CC agreement.

Eligible Participants

Participants are recruited by the funding recipients.

To participate in Career Focus, youth must be:

  • between the ages of 15 and 30 (inclusive) at the time of intake/selection;
  • Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or persons who have been granted refugee status in CanadaFootnote 2;
  • legally entitled to work according to the relevant provincial/territorial legislation and regulationsFootnote 3;
  • not in receipt of Employment Insurance (EI) benefitsFootnote 4.

Project Activities

To be eligible for Career Focus funding, proposed projects must involve a minimum of 8 youth participants.

Within rural (defined by Statistics Canada as an area with a population of less than 1,000 and a density of less than 400 people per square kilometre) and remote regions, exceptions may be made vis-à-vis the minimum participant requirement. Applicants must include a strong justification in the proposal as to why the minimum requirement of 8 participants cannot be fulfilled.

Recruitment of Participants

Contribution recipients are responsible for recruiting participants for Career Focus activities. Contribution recipients are also responsible for working with SC/ESDC to verify the eligibility of all youth who are recruited.

Career-related work experience

Eligible Career Focus activities include career-related work experiences. A career-related work experience is an activity through which Career Focus participants can gain employment experience and skills related to their field of studies or career goals. In other words, this activity facilitates their transition into the labour market, or supports the field of studies of those participants still in school. Through the work experience, participants will be able to supplement their theoretical knowledge with practical skills. Work experiences must be supported by workplace coaching and/or mentoring, to maximize the benefit to be gained by the participantFootnote 5.

The duration of the work experience will vary but is normally at least six months and not more than twelve months.

Advanced Employability Skills

Funding may be provided for advanced employability skills workshops such as management skills, entrepreneurial skills, leadership skills, communication, teamwork and essential skills workshops. These workshops must be part of the career-related work experience and must never exceed 50% of the duration of the work experience.

Eligible Costs

Financial assistance may be provided to cover a maximum of 80% of the costs associated with operating and delivering approved activities; contribution recipients are required to leverage (to include contributions {cash or in-kind} provided by project partners other than the Department) a minimum of 20% of total project costs (contribution recipients who are employers funding their own work experience activities would be included as providing leveraging). For instance, if the total calculated budget for a project is $100,000, then the applicant (or other partners) is required to provide a minimum of $20,000 and $80,000 may be requested of the Department.

Contributions may be made to eligible contribution recipients, including those who further distribute funds to ultimate recipients, for the following costs of eligible activities:

  1. overhead costs, including costs related to central administrative functions of the recipient organization that are drawn upon to support agreement activities (such as shared postage, telephones, IT maintenance and head office);
  2. the costs of materials and supplies;
  3. wages and mandatory employment-related costs (MERCs);
  4. honoraria and hospitality costs;
  5. printing and communication costs;
  6. travel costs;
  7. professional fees (such as consultants, IT, technical expertise, facilitation, legal, research, audit, assessment and evaluation);
  8. capital costs; and,
  9. other costs necessary to support the purpose of the funding, as approved by ESDC.

Financial Assistance

Financial assistance may be provided to cover all or a portion of the costs associated with participating in the activities.

Costs may include:

  • Income support to participants (wages) based on the prevailing wage rate for the occupation and mandatory employment related costs (MERCs) for participants;
  • additional support to cover all or part of the incremental costs for individuals to participate, such as dependent care, travel or transportation; and,
  • other support to cover the cost of items associated with the youth's participation, including disability supports.

The maximum cost per participant (the amount of departmental funding requested divided by the number of expected participants) is $20,000 per project regardless of the length of the intervention. This includes overhead and participant costs. Amounts needed to accommodate participants with disabilities would be in addition to the $20,000 maximum.

Expected Results

Project outcomes should focus on the skills acquired through career-related work experiences and the return of youth to advanced level studies. Expected results for Career Focus project should include:

  • number of clients served through Career Focus;
  • number of clients employed or self-employed; and,
  • number of clients who return to school/stay in school.

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