Immigrant Youth Employability Program: Evaluation Research Report

This report provides an evaluation of the Immigrant youth Employability (IYE) program of The Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia’s (ISANS). Youth and employers who had previously participated in the program were interviewed. The qualitative interview provided insights into the experiences and perceptions of the participants. Drawing from their experiences, there was a high indication of satisfaction from youth and employers alike as they all would recommend the program to friends and colleagues, respectively. For the youth, the common denominator for participating in the program is to obtain employment. Improving English language proficiency, developing skills, and learning about the Canadian workplace culture were the other rationale for participating in the program. For the employers, on the other hand, motivations include a sense of giving back to the community, government wage subsidy, labor need, and a need for diversity in the workplace. Some of the key findings that emerged from the study are:

• Paid employment programs offer both social and economic benefits to newcomer youth, organizations and the larger society
• The program serves as a foundation for the successful participation and integration of immigrant youth in the labor market.
• Offering employment to immigrant youth is beneficial to the wellbeing of businesses and organizations.
• The government wage subsidy is a significant incentive for employers’ participation in the program.

The following are some recommendations to strengthen the IYE program:

• An increase in the placement hours to give youth ample time to put their newly acquired skills and knowledge to work
• An effort to be made to reduce the waiting time between classroom learning and agency placement
• ISANS workers to do regular check-ins with youth and employers to identify developing concerns and monitor youth’s progress and integration
• Cultural education should be organized for participating organizations to ensure smooth integration and reduce discrimination among co-workers
• ISANS to develop more connections with businesses and organizations in the larger community to provide more placement options for youth