What this program offers

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• Program objectives
• Glossary

Program objectives

The Team Canada Strong Youth Placements (TCSYP) program aims to connect youth with employers to provide paid construction and trades-related work opportunities that help participants build skills, launch careers, and contribute to Canada's nation-building agenda.

The program provides youth aged 15 to 30 with paid, entry-level construction and trades-related work placements of up to four months. Youth will get hands-on experience, earn income, and be supported to consider skilled trades and apprenticeship as a future career pathway.

The objectives of the TCSYP are to:

• support youth in exploring careers in the skilled trades through paid, entry-level work experience of up to four months in construction and trades-related occupations
• provide youth participants with access to wraparound supports that respond to their individual needs
• help participants, including youth facing barriers to employment, develop skills and gain exposure to skilled trades occupations, build professional networks, and advance toward long-term careers in the skilled trades
• support youth in progressing along skilled trades pathways beyond their placements, including working with organizations delivering the Build Canada Apprenticeship Service (BCAS) program, to facilitate connections and the transition to apprenticeship, where appropriate
• support and align with the overarching Team Canada Strong initiative to recruit, train, and hire 80,000 to 100,000 new Red Seal trades workers over five years, including by promoting the skilled trades as a career of first choice

Glossary

Accommodation

Consistent with the Accessible Canada Act, refers to necessary and appropriate modifications, adjustments, or supports that enable a person with a disability to fully and equally participate in employment or related activities, without imposing undue hardship. For the purposes of Team Canada Strong Youth Placements, accommodations include workplace or participation‑related accommodations, such as accessibility measures, adaptive equipment, modified processes, communication supports, or other supports required to remove barriers to participation.

Build Canada Apprenticeship Service (BCAS)

A federally funded program that provides financial incentives to small and medium-sized employers (SMEs) to hire first-year apprentices in the eligible Red Seal trades. The BCAS will also provide non-financial services to apprentices and SMEs, such as job matching and navigation supports to facilitate participation, retention and progression in the skilled trades.

Construction and trades-related

For the purposes of this program, these are defined as occupations directly involved in the planning, construction, installation, maintenance of residential and non-residential buildings, transportation and civil and industrial infrastructure, and associated heavy equipment and machinery, in addition to related manufacturing activities.

Disability

Consistent with the Accessible Canada Act, disability means any impairment, including a physical, mental, intellectual, cognitive, learning, communication or sensory impairment, or a functional limitation, whether permanent, temporary or episodic in nature, or evident or not, that, in interaction with a barrier, hinders a person's full and equal participation in society.

Employment barriers

Anything that inhibits an individual's ability to find and/or keep employment.

Employability skills

Workplace communication, teamwork, problem solving, adaptability, time management etc.

High Quality and Well-Paying Work Placements

Paid construction and trades-related work placements that provide youth with meaningful workplace experience, structured skills development, mentorship, and exposure to apprenticeship and career pathways in the skilled trades. Placements should include substantive work responsibilities that contribute to the development of occupation-specific and transferable skills and improve participants' readiness for long-term employment in the skilled trades. Placements must consist of a minimum of 420 hours over a 12- to 16-week period and pay at least $20 per hour or the applicable federal, provincial, or territorial minimum wage, whichever is higher.

Intake Mechanism

A structured process through which participants complete an initial assessment to identify their skills, interests, and support needs. The assessment helps determine appropriate training, supports, and construction or trades-related work placement opportunities.

Partnerships

Formal or informal collaborative arrangements between delivery organizations, employers, industry associations, training institutions, youth-serving organizations, Indigenous organizations, unions, community organizations, and other relevant stakeholders that contribute to the successful delivery of the project. Partnerships may support participant recruitment, outreach, intake and assessment, employer engagement, job matching, work placement delivery, wraparound supports, skills development, apprenticeship pathways, and employment outcomes. Strong partnerships leverage complementary expertise, resources, networks, services, training opportunities, and placement opportunities to improve participant outcomes and support youth progression into careers in the skilled trades and construction-related sectors.

Trades

For the purposes of this program, trades include occupations designated under the Red Seal Program, as well as non‑Red Seal trades that are provincially or territorially regulated, industry‑recognized, or aligned with apprenticeship or pre‑apprenticeship pathways relevant to regional labour market needs. Trades may include, but are not limited to areas such as construction, electrical, mechanical, industrial, carpentry, plumbing, welding, heavy equipment operation, finishing trades, and emerging or specialized occupations relevant to regional labour market needs.

Wraparound supports

Formal services, supports, strategies and interventions that help ensure youth facing multiple challenges can fully participate in the labour force and the broader community. Wraparound supports are individually tailored, responsive and accessible to each youth. Supports are used to help participants meet living expenses, address any health or disability impediments, and acquire skills and knowledge. Supports increase the likelihood of participant success. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• mental health supports
• childcare
• personal protective equipment (PPE) including properly fitting PPE for women
• transportation subsidies
• work clothing, tools and other equipment required for participation
• accessibility supports and accommodations
• translation and interpretation services
• employment-related coaching
• mentorship and peer-support services
• workplace retention, including supports that help participants navigate workplace culture and succeed in occupations where they are underrepresented

Youth facing barriers to employment

Refers to young people who experience personal, systemic, or structural challenges that limit their ability to access, participate in, or remain in the labour market. These barriers may be social, economic, geographic, educational, or related to discrimination, and often intersect or compound one another. For the purposes of the program, youth facing barriers may require additional, individualized supports to enable successful participation in employment opportunities and pathways to sustained work.

Youth facing barriers may include, but are not limited to:

• Young women and gender‑diverse youth, particularly in sectors where women and gender‑diverse individuals are underrepresented
• Indigenous youth
• Racialized youth
• Black youth
• Newcomer youth
• Youth with disabilities
• 2SLGBTQI+ youth
• Youth living in rural, remote, Northern, and fly-in communities
• Youth in official language minority communities