Question Period Note: CASA’s report: Learning and Earning: Improving Student Employment Pathways in Canadian Post-Secondary Education

How is the Government responding to the need for stronger support for student employment?

• Youth unemployment is on the rise, now at 14.1%, and many youth face affordability challenges. This is why the Government is committed to taking action to help youth and students find good jobs and succeed in the labour market.
• We welcome the recent report by CASA highlighting this important issue. Tackling youth and student unemployment and ensuring youth have access to meaningful work-integrated learning opportunities is a priority for this Government.

• This year, the Government will create over 130,000 employment opportunities for youth and students through the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy, Canada Summer Jobs, and the Student Work Placement Program.
• These programs are demonstrating results in helping youth acquire in-demand skills and improve their employment prospects.

CASA REPORT

• CASA’s report highlights the importance of work-integrated learning as employers increasingly seek graduates with hands-on experience and job ready competencies.

• CASA recognizes the importance of the Student Work Placement Program for having a high return on taxpayer investment and recommends that the Government increases investments in the Student Work Placement Program,

• The report commends Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) for playing a crucial role in providing youth with hands-on, skills-based work experiences that prepare them for the labour market. It also makes recommendations, including adding part-time jobs from September to April and providing a stream for students work opportunities aligning with their field of studies.

• Other recommendations include increasing incentives for apprentices to enter apprenticeship programs, including hiring apprentices in federally-funded construction projects (e.g. 20% of more of hours are worked by apprentices); improve national labour market data on youth to better capture the complexity of youth unemployment and granular information (e.g., Indigenous students, students with disabilities, factors affecting employment outcomes post-graduation, definition of high-demand fields); and, work with provinces and territories on a national school to work transition strategy and create tax-based employer training incentives.

STUDENT WORK PLACEMENT PROGRAM

• SWPP supports partnerships between industry and post-secondary institutions to create quality work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for students in all disciplines. The Program supports two types of opportunities: paid work placements; and shorter, more intense innovative WIL opportunities (for which students received a stipend in support of their participation).

• For thousands of Canadian college, university, polytechnic, and CEGEP students, WIL programs help to bring together academic learning and applied work experience. These opportunities can include but are not limited to co-ops, internships, or mentorship programs, as well as other non-traditional experiences like hackathons, boot camps, and micro-internships.

• The Program incentivizes employers to meet a target of 25% of opportunities going to students who have historically lacked access or experienced barriers to participating in WIL opportunities.

• Since 2017, the Program supported close to 250,000 WIL opportunities for post-secondary students across all provinces and territories across various sectors. Over 29,000 employers (92% small and medium size enterprises) and 380 post-secondary institutions (87% of institutions nationwide) are participating in the program.

• Budget 2024 proposed $207.6 million in 2025-2026 for the SWPP to create more WIL opportunities for post-secondary students.

• Funding for 2025-2026 has been fully committed. The 26 agreements (24 funding recipients) have been extended to support the delivery of 40,000 WIL opportunities starting in the Summer 2025 academic semester.

Part-time and year-round work placement opportunities:

The CSJ program provides summer work experience for youth aged 15-30, recognizing that many youth have time available for a full-time job opportunity and given there is an increased demand for work opportunities (e.g., summer camps, tourism, etc.).

The YESS Program and the Student Work Placement Program support youth and students to gain work-related skills and work experiences through longer-term placements year-round in a variety of sectors and, in some cases, aligning with their field of studies.

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