Discover how our one-year research project identified and helped address the employment needs of newcomer youth in Atlantic Canada.
The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy project was a one-year research project designed to identify the employment-related needs of newcomer youth ages 15-30 in Atlantic Canada while also determining the extent to which these needs are currently being met through existing programming.
The project consisted of the following activities:
- Identification and engagement of an advisory committee to help guide the project began in April-June 2022;
- An environmental scan of programs accessible to newcomer youth and programs specifically targeted to this demographic in the Atlantic Region began in July 2022;
- A Literature Review of existing research on newcomer youth and employment including other relevant material was conducted in July-August 2022;
- Interviews with IRCC-funded service providers and other stakeholders offering employment-related programming to newcomer youth began in August 2022 and concluded in October 2022. In total, 15 people representing various settlement and non-settlement-related service providers were interviewed;
- A series of in-person and online focus groups involving eligible youth in all 4 provinces was conducted from October – December 2022. In total, nine focus groups were held with a total of 70 youth representing each of the four Atlantic provinces;
- A final report comprising of research findings and proposed recommendations was published in May 2023.
The results of this project are intended to contribute towards the strategic outcome that youth, particularly youth facing barriers, access programs that allow them to acquire the skills, learning experience and opportunities they need to find and maintain employment or return to (or remain in) school.
The 5 Steps
What have the Youth said?
- Learning “Soft Skills” is important
- Program eligibility criteria can be an issue
- Great need for collaboration between service providers and employers