Strengthening employment interventions for newcomer youth

We conducted a series of workshops with newcomer youth and service providers to better understand newcomer youth employment experience in the GTA.

Background

Employment is both an essential need and an incredible challenge for newcomer youth starting their lives in Canada. While newcomer youth possess many strengths and skills for employment, research shows that they also have a lower employment rate than youth born in Canada and earn less despite high levels of education.  

With funding from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) through the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program (YESS), Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC), JVS Toronto (JVS) and WoodGreen Community Services (WoodGreen) co-led a research project to better understand the needs of newcomer youth and the unique skills and experience they bring to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) workforce, as well as the barriers they encounter.

The partners spoke to thousands of youth to better understand their employment journey, as well as hundreds of employers, educators and other stakeholders. Blueprint helped facilitate sessions with newcomer youth from across the GTA to better understand the unique challenges and opportunities they face in the labour market and to co-design recommendations for what can be done to ensure all newcomer youth are able to realize their full potential

The Challenge

In the last phase of this research initiative, Blueprint was asked to carry out a series of workshops with newcomer youth and service providers to validate research findings and generate recommendations to strengthen employment interventions for newcomer youth in the GTA.

We hosted three workshops, with a total of 51 youth participants from all over the GTA and 11 service providers across seven different organizations. Each of these workshops focused on recommendations connected to a specific part of the employment journey:

  • Pre-employment journey: interventions that help newcomer youth prepare for employment
  • Job search and entry: interventions that help newcomer youth secure employment
  • Retention & career advancement: interventions that help newcomer youth advance in their careers

Read our full report to learn more or view the report summary here.  

What we Learned

Taken together, the research points to a lack of programs and services for newcomer youth that span their employment journeys and recognize their diverse experiences and needs. In our workshops with newcomer youth, we learned what skills have helped them succeed in the workforce as well as common barriers or training needed.  

Skills newcomer youth bring to the workplace:

  • Communication
  • Adaptability
  • Resilience
  • Strong work ethic

Challenges & Barriers:

  • Managing cultural differences  
  • Unsupportive managers and workplaces
  • Unfair and exploitative practices  
  • Lack of high-quality retention and career advancement services

Below are direct quotes from participants in the workshop.

A white board graphic with sticky notes that describe challenges and barriers newcomer youth face in their employment journey
A white board graphic with sticky notes that describe the strengths and assets newcomer youth bring to the workforce.

Read TRIEC’s consolidated report which highlights the data and insights gathered by all the project partners, and offers actionable recommendations to foster better employment outcomes for newcomer youth in the GTA: https://triec.ca/research-and-insights/yess/

Background

Employment is both an essential need and an incredible challenge for newcomer youth starting their lives in Canada. While newcomer youth possess many strengths and skills for employment, research shows that they also have a lower employment rate than youth born in Canada and earn less despite high levels of education.  

With funding from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) through the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program (YESS), Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC), JVS Toronto (JVS) and WoodGreen Community Services (WoodGreen) co-led a research project to better understand the needs of newcomer youth and the unique skills and experience they bring to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) workforce, as well as the barriers they encounter.

The partners spoke to thousands of youth to better understand their employment journey, as well as hundreds of employers, educators and other stakeholders. Blueprint helped facilitate sessions with newcomer youth from across the GTA to better understand the unique challenges and opportunities they face in the labour market and to co-design recommendations for what can be done to ensure all newcomer youth are able to realize their full potential

The Challenge

In the last phase of this research initiative, Blueprint was asked to carry out a series of workshops with newcomer youth and service providers to validate research findings and generate recommendations to strengthen employment interventions for newcomer youth in the GTA.

We hosted three workshops, with a total of 51 youth participants from all over the GTA and 11 service providers across seven different organizations. Each of these workshops focused on recommendations connected to a specific part of the employment journey:

  • Pre-employment journey: interventions that help newcomer youth prepare for employment
  • Job search and entry: interventions that help newcomer youth secure employment
  • Retention & career advancement: interventions that help newcomer youth advance in their careers

Read our full report to learn more or view the report summary here.  

What we Learned

Taken together, the research points to a lack of programs and services for newcomer youth that span their employment journeys and recognize their diverse experiences and needs. In our workshops with newcomer youth, we learned what skills have helped them succeed in the workforce as well as common barriers or training needed.  

Skills newcomer youth bring to the workplace:

  • Communication
  • Adaptability
  • Resilience
  • Strong work ethic

Challenges & Barriers:

  • Managing cultural differences  
  • Unsupportive managers and workplaces
  • Unfair and exploitative practices  
  • Lack of high-quality retention and career advancement services

Below are direct quotes from participants in the workshop.

A white board graphic with sticky notes that describe challenges and barriers newcomer youth face in their employment journey
A white board graphic with sticky notes that describe the strengths and assets newcomer youth bring to the workforce.

Read TRIEC’s consolidated report which highlights the data and insights gathered by all the project partners, and offers actionable recommendations to foster better employment outcomes for newcomer youth in the GTA: https://triec.ca/research-and-insights/yess/

Want to learn more? Read our research papers for a wide range of ideas to strengthen career guidance:

August 1, 2022

Responsive Career Pathways Research Brief: Guiding Careers for the Future

The Responsive Career Pathways Research Brief consolidates key findings from our past 9 research papers in partnership with the Future Skills Centre. In this brief, we outline key innovation challenges and opportunities for career guidance services in Canada, and highlight common barriers to accessing these services.

English ReportFrench Report
November 25, 2021

Breaking Down Barriers to Career Development

Career guidance systems could be designed with a whole-of-person lens. This paper considers promising practices in breaking down barriers to career guidance for Canadians.

English ReportFrench Report
November 22, 2021

Navigating Canada’s Messy Education and Training Marketplace for Career-Focused Learning

Adult learners have to navigate an increasingly diverse, fragmented and complex education and training marketplace. This paper assesses options helping Canadian learners navigate their education and learning choices.

English ReportFrench Report
November 19, 2021

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Responsive Career Pathways

The path to accessing career guidance is challenging for racialized people, women and newcomers to Canada. This paper offers opportunities to strengthen our publicly-funded employment systems to effectively address labour market inequity.

English ReportFrench Report
November 17, 2021

The Role of Employers in Responsive Career Pathways

Employers are critical in establishing more responsive career pathways for Canadians. This paper outlines some of the challenges and opportunities employers are facing related to the future of work and skills.

English ReportFrench Report
November 17, 2021

The Career Development Profession in Canada and the Emergence of Online/Multi-Modal Practice Delivery

Career development practitioners have a critical role to play in helping Canadians prepare for the future of work. This paper tackles questions about the role of career development practitioners and the evolution of their practice.

English ReportFrench Report
November 17, 2021

Applying Behavioural Insights to Career Guidance

Offering forward-looking, customized, high-quality and accessible career guidance to a wide range of Canadians is possible. This paper identifies behavioural and motivational barriers to accessing career guidance and offers a promising path ahead.

English ReportFrench Report
November 17, 2021

Use of Technology and Tools in Responsive Career Pathways

The role and use of technologies that help individuals and career practitioners navigate career pathways are rapidly evolving. This paper outlines potential ways responsive career pathways can be enabled by technology.

English ReportFrench Report
November 16, 2021

Glossary of Terms

This document provides consistent definitions for the terms that are applied across all of the research papers for the Responsive Career Pathways initiative.

English ReportFrench Report
November 16, 2021

A Roadmap for Change: Building Responsive Career Pathways in a Post-Pandemic World

This paper offers considerations for strengthening and aligning our careers and employment systems to better serve Canadians across their career trajectory.

English ReportFrench Report
November 15, 2021

Labour Market Information in Responsive Career Pathways

Finding ways to make labour market information accessible and useful for service providers and individuals is key for creating more responsive career pathways.

English ReportFrench Report

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