Step 1
Contact us to let us know what type of roles your organization is looking to fill: e.g. administrative, HR, IT, financial etc.
About the YESS Program
APPLICATIONS FOR THE SUMMER 2023 SESSION ARE NOW CLOSED.
The Fall intake of the YESS program will begin at the end of August 2023. Class training dates for this session are from September 11th, 2023 to November 6, 2023 followed by a 6-week work placement.
Register for an online information session to learn about the Fall intake of the program. Limited seats available!
Session 1: August 18 at 10:00 am REGISTER HERE!
Session 2: August 21 at 10:00 am REGISTER HERE!
Session 3: August 23 at 10:00 am REGISTER HERE!
The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) Program aims to help youth make career decisions and create a career plan, develop workplace skills, and gain work experience to successfully transition into the labour market.
YESS offers four sessions per year for newcomers to Canada who want to be employed full time in their chosen field. Eligibility includes permanent residents, refugees, and recent citizens who are under 30 years old with English language levels of CLB 5 or higher.
This program includes 8 weeks of classroom training followed by a six-week work placement. Oh, and we should mention that classroom training and work placement are PAID! If you know about our Career Bridging program, YESS is like CBP’s cousin!
We are here to help you make career decisions, learn valuable employment skills and support you in getting Canadian work experience. We are accepting applications for the program on an ongoing basis: please fill out the application form here.
After you have applied to the program we will email you with the next Information Session dates and location. Please attend an Information Session to find out more about this program and to schedule an interview.
For more details read on below!
Eligibility
- Between the ages of 15-30
- Permanent resident, refugee, or Canadian citizen in Canada for 5 years or less
- Assessed at a CLB 5 or higher
- Unemployed or under-employed with barriers to gaining employment in your field
Program Overview
The YESS Program combines eight weeks of PAID classroom training with six weeks of PAID work placement.
The in-class employment skills training runs Monday-Friday 9:30 am – 2:30 pm. The work placements will be arranged with local employers and the dates are to be determined in collaboration with the employer and Employer Liaison.
The in-class employment skills training covers the following topics:
- Goal setting and career mapping
- Job applications: resume and cover letter writing
- Soft skills and workplace culture
- The 9 essential skills
- Interview skills, mock interviews, and networking
- Canadian workplace communication
- Employment standards, occupational health and safety, workers’ rights and responsibilities
- Finances in Canada
Upcoming partnership opportunities for employers
The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) Program is federally funded through Service Canada to provide employment skills training for newcomers 16 to 30, including those under the age of 31.
Through this program, we partner with local employers to provide six-week work placements for the participants. We ask the employer to put this participant on their payroll and treat them like an employee. RODS will reimburse their minimum wage for 30 hours/week.
Perhaps you need to hire for a position anyway – we can help you on-board our participants as the new hire, liaise their experience for the first six weeks, and pay for those first six weeks of training.
The idea behind the work placements is to provide young newcomers with the opportunity to gain Canadian work experience, references to add to their resume, build networks in their field, and gather insight into the Canadian workplace while being supported through a program. The Employer Liaison is involved to make sure that these six weeks are a good learning opportunity for the participant and make sure there are clear lines of communication for everyone.
If you are an employer who wishes to host a work placement or use the work placement to onboard new-hires, please contact the Employer Liaison, Jade Dolan for more information: jaded@rods.sk.ca
I’m saying yes to being an employer partner, now what?
What have employers said about working with participants with in similar employment programs at Regina Open Door Society?
This project is funded by the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Skills Strategy.