Thank you, House of Commons finance committee members, for the honour of coming to Ottawa to present to you on an issue of importance for our entire country.
Today I will share with you information on a provincial survey that we were involved in undertaking, the resulting successful program that was developed in response to this survey, and our recommendations for improving youth employment outcomes.
In 2009 we embarked on completing a local survey to determine directly from youth what was preventing them from fully participating in the economy. It targeted youth 15 to 30 years of age who were not attending school or employed. We also completed a survey with local businesses to see why they were not hiring these youths. With guidance from a great team of Service Canada staff and community partners who assisted us, the results of the survey were unveiled in 2010.
After our survey was successfully completed, Service Canada contacted our organization wanting to replicate the survey process in rural and northern communities around the province of Manitoba. The provincial survey obtained information from more than 500 businesses and from 1,700 youth who were unable to integrate fully into the workforce or further their education. In September 2011 the final research report from the new comprehensive survey was published.
The findings offered a great deal of insight into how some youth face major barriers to entering the workforce in our province, including lack of education, a family history of unemployment, inadequate accessibility to child care, and having little employment experience. Also, they were generally discouraged due to a lack of family and community supports. These findings were consistent throughout the province regardless of whether the youth lived in a larger rural centre or a smaller northern community.
Employers reported difficulties finding qualified employees despite there being unemployed youth. They also identified that there was a lack of youth willing to work, a lack of workplace skills, lifestyle barriers, and other issues that were a challenge when hiring youth. They also stated that general skills, including customer service, verbal communication, and interpersonal and organizational skills, were important for their business, yet youth seemed to lack these skills.
A positive outcome of the survey was that in 2010 we established a youth skills development program. Partners included Service Canada and provincial departments, including MB4Youth, Workplace Education Manitoba, Neighbourhoods Alive!, and the Dauphin Friendship Centre. We developed a curriculum that addresses the lack of essential skills identified in the survey and provided participants with group-based programming and individual instruction and counselling.
The barriers to employment are addressed in a 16-week classroom program, which prepares the youths for an eight-week paid placement in which they can put their new-found skills to practical use. After the completion of the program, the participants are monitored for 16 weeks to ensure they have maintained employment.
In the four years of offering the program, we have successfully and consistently achieved a success rate of at least 70%. This year's success rate to date has been 90%.
We believe that encouraging essential skill development is the future in assisting unemployed youth to be better prepared to participate in our economy and is important for many reasons. Youth who lack decent work skills early in life often show unsuitable employment behaviours later in life. They don't contribute fully to the Canada Pension Plan, and their social issues can be compounded as they go through life. Unfortunately, these barriers often become a cycle and are passed on to the children of these youths, making it difficult for them to lift themselves out of poverty.
Of major importance in finding a solution to engage all youth in the economy is establishing community partnerships. Trying to help youth overcome their employment barriers shouldn't fall on the shoulders of one entity to solve. It need to be a collaborative effort by entire communities.
The solution to addressing youth employment also needs to come from and have the support of federal, provincial and local levels of government. We need to be proactive in our pursuit of getting youth involved in the workforce, especially as our population ages.
In order to improve youth employment outcomes in Canada, a national youth employment strategy needs to include provisions for youth for essential skills and literacy training, wraparound supports, and socially innovative programming like that offered by our friendship centre.