July 21, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Whitehorse, Yukon - Young people across Yukon will have greater opportunities to learn about skilled trades through the Skills Canada Yukon Competition, community skills clubs, educational presentations, and workshops. The Honourable Monte Solberg, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, and the Honourable Patrick Rouble, Minister of Education for the Government of Yukon, today announced the project to help employers address future labour shortages in skilled trades and technologies by promoting these trades to youth as a viable career option.
"The Government of Canada is committed to creating the best educated, most skilled, and most flexible work force in the world," said Minister Solberg. "Our investment will encourage young people to take up trades as a career and supports the Yukon Skills Competition and Team Yukon when they are at Canadian Skills Competitions."
"Our economy is thriving, and Yukon needs skilled workers to keep the territory strong. Skills Canada Yukon helps attract fine young Yukoners to the trades, promotes excellence, and encourages pride in work. By supporting Skills Canada Yukon, the Department of Education is investing in a bright future for Yukon," said Minister Rouble.
Skills Canada Yukon will receive $250,000 in Youth Awareness funding from the Government of Canada and $78,908 from the Yukon Government. With this funding, Skills Canada Yukon will increase the awareness of careers in skilled trades and technologies through participation in the Yukon and Canadian Skills Competitions, running the Whitehorse Skills Centre, the development of skills clubs, and presentations on skilled careers.
"Skills Canada Yukon is extremely pleased to have Service Canada as our largest funding partner," said Dan Curtis, Skills Canada Yukon Executive Director. "With the funding and guidance we have received from the Government of Canada, we continue to enjoy unprecedented success at the annual Canadian Skills Competitions. Yukon is taking great strides in filling the shortage of qualified tradespeople in Yukon and Canada."
"I am proud to be representing Canada at the 2009 World Skills competition," said Karl Loos, member of Team Yukon. "The skills that I have learned, through Skills Canada Yukon's support, have allowed me to enter the workforce with world-class knowledge and experiences."
The Government of Canada has also committed $13.4 million to the international skills competition, WorldSkills. From September 1 to 6, 2009, Calgary will host more than 900 young people between the ages of 17 and 23 from 49 countries. The WorldSkills competition is an Olympic-style event where young skilled people compete in their various trades, before a public audience, and test themselves against demanding international standards. The WorldSkills competition sets world-class standards in more than 40 skill categories, ranging from welding to cooking, auto-body repair to landscape gardening, and plumbing to Web design.
This project, with Skills Canada Yukon, reflects the Government of Canada's commitment to creating a strong economy for all Canadians. Through its Advantage Canada plan, the Government is building on Canada 's strengths and gaining a global competitive advantage by reducing taxes for all Canadians, increasing competition in the marketplace, and building modern infrastructure.
The Government has taken steps to address skills shortages and promote the trades as a quality career option by funding skills-related projects and creating the Apprenticeship Incentive Grant, a taxable cash grant of $1,000 a year that is available to registered apprentices in the first two years of a Red Seal trade program.
Service Canada brings Government of Canada services and benefits together in a single delivery network. It provides Canadians with one-stop service they can access however they choose-by phone at 1 800 O-Canada, on the Internet at servicecanada.gc.ca, or in person at Service Canada Centres across the country.
- 30 -
This news release is available in alternative formats on request. Call 1-800-788-8282 on a touch-tone phone or through a teletypewriter (TTY)
Media inquiries:
Service Canada Communications
604-666-2337
Media Relations Office
Service Canada
819-994-5559
Matthew Grant
Cabinet Communications
Government of Yukon
867-667-7961
matthew.grant@gov.yk.ca
Michele Royle
Communications Coordinator, Education
Government of Yukon
867-303-7102
michele.royle@gov.yk.ca
Public inquiries:
1 800 O-Canada (1-800-622-6232)
TTY: 1-800-926-9105
servicecanada.gc.ca
Youth Info Line
1-800-935-5555
youth.gc.ca
Backgrounder
Youth Awareness Initiative
Youth Awareness is an initiative, funded under the Employment Insurance (EI) program, that complements the Government of Canada's Youth Employment Strategy. Youth Awareness projects are delivered at the national, regional, and local levels.
Youth Awareness provides financial assistance for projects designed to address labour-market issues that face communities, which can be used to develop and implement human-resource strategies to meet employers' current and future human-resource needs.
National priorities for Youth Awareness have been set to promote a pan-Canadian approach to delivering Youth Awareness projects. The following priorities were developed in collaboration with Service Canada Centres:
- Skills gaps -to expand young people's awareness of the shortages in labour in certain skilled trades sectors of employment;
- Labour-force integration of rural youth -to improve opportunities for youth living in smaller, rural communities where jobs and employment services are more difficult to find.
