Mr. Chair, my name is Naguib Gouda, and I am president of Career Edge.
First of all, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to appear as a witness before the Standing Committee on Finance as part of its study on youth employment in Canada. This subject ties very closely to the work that Career Edge does, and I feel privileged to share both our insights and our history at today's hearing.
Career Edge was created in 1996 by a group of business leaders from a number of prominent enterprises in response to a finding in the mid-1990s that more than half a million Canadian graduates were either unemployed or underemployed. Since then, these founding organizations have been joined by over 1,000 additional employers to provide close to 12,000 recent university and college graduates, including those with self-declared disabilities, and internationally qualified professionals with career-launching paid internship opportunities.
I'm proud to say that the Government of Canada has been a great partner of our organization, taking on over 2,400 Career Edge interns as part of the federal public service youth internship program between 1997 and 2000. This program was critical to Career Edge's success in its fledgling years, and has greatly contributed to our long-term sustainability. Furthermore, the Government of Ontario has taken on close to 700 of our paid interns since 2004. Nearly half of those were federally funded.
Today’s levels of youth employment are reminiscent of those when Career Edge was founded. We believe that working in collaboration with the Government of Canada we can once again play an important role in helping young Canadians find meaningful work that is consistent with their skills and education, by providing a much-needed boost to their career and quality of life and to the country’s economic development.
Although many of the findings or the comments in the report are statistics that you all know, I just want to highlight a couple of key insights.
First, youth unemployment is nearly double that of the general population. Part-time rates are 30% higher for youth compared with the general population. In terms of Career Edge's own database of recent graduates, it has shown no worthy fluctuations in Canada's youth labour market. Education levels of Career Edge's registrants, who are the people we help, have significantly increased since 2008, with recent grads with bachelor's degrees returning to school to pursue a master's degree or a post-degree certificate when faced with little or no job prospects.
From our 17-year history, we know that paid internships work. As stated on page 4 of our report, more than half of Career Edge interns are hired by the host employers at the end of their internship. The majority of the rest find meaningful employment elsewhere within six months of finishing that internship.
While investing in the creation of internship opportunities that promote greater levels of youth employment prospects, we recommend that the government enact federal legislation to the Canada Labour Code that specifically outlines the conditions of internships across all of Canada's provinces and territories. This will ensure fairness, and the protection of young workers, while giving employers firm guidelines for incorporating internships and internship programs into their recruitment, retention, and succession planning initiatives.
In addition to the above, we recommend that the Canadian government provide funding to employers to encourage the creation of paid internship opportunities.
With reference to chapter 3.1 of Canada's economic plan 2014, Career Edge endorses the federal government's plans to focus investments on improving the youth employment strategy by supporting internships in high-demand fields and supporting internships in small and medium-sized enterprises.
Thank you once more, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to appear before the Standing Committee on Finance as part of its study on youth employment in Canada.