Thanks, Vass.
Behind these stats are the stories we all hear—graduates applying for 500-plus jobs and never getting a response, job fairs with lineups around the block and applicants competing not just with each other but actually with AI screening bots to get seen by a potential employer. The result is what one analyst has called “AI versus AI”—job seekers using AI to tailor résumés for algorithms that screen them out anyway. It's brutal. This is a broken matching system. It erodes confidence and risks creating a lost generation of underemployed young Canadians.
Policy solutions to support youth employment typically focus on the supply side of things, such as skilling, but what if the demand for labour has fundamentally shifted? That's the side of the ledger that policy should be focusing on.
We would emphasize three directions for policy. One, bridge the gap between learning and earning. Co-op and apprenticeship programs see more demand than supply. That means more young people want a co-op than are actually available for young people to take. Firms need to provide opportunities that young people are seeking. Support the implementation of a vocational education and training model for apprenticeships. This has stabilized youth employment in Germany and Switzerland. It's worth looking at.
Two, modernize hiring and labour market systems. Incentivize Canada's businesses, large and small, to actually hire and train youth instead of automating them away. There are other things we can use AI for that would be a lot more useful. Experiment with transparent, randomized lottery pilots for internships and fellowships to reduce gatekeeping and selection bias. Design a nationwide system to assess the skills that young workers actually have instead of relying on credentials that signal something but not everything.
I'm seeing that's our time. We have more to say, but we'll get to that in questions.
Thank you very much.