Youth Employment & Skills Strategy (YESS) Program

Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) Program

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.

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?

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.
Step 2
If we have participants with experience in the area you are looking for, we will send you their resumes to review.
Step 3
After reviewing the resumes, you will tell us which candidates you would like to interview. We will work with you to set up the interview with the candidate(s).
Step 4
Let us know who you have selected and their work schedule, keeping in mind that our funding covers 30 hours per week for six weeks at minimum wage. (Or up to 180 hours)
Step 5
We will then provide a work placement contract, including the schedule, security clearance (criminal record checks) and the plan to reimburse wages.
Step 6
You onboard the candidate as your employee! We will be available to help with the work placement in any way we can.
Step 7
After the employee starts, we will provide you with evaluation forms and ask you to perform mid and end employee performance evaluations.

What have employers said about working with participants with in similar employment programs at Regina Open Door Society?

Open to learning and takes feedback. Exceptional written communication. Learned new applications quickly. Very focused surpassing goals.

-Financial Institution

Wonderful and competent/Quick learner. His banking background was very helpful. Proficient with MS Office suite.

- Non-profit Association

Very positive attitude. Asked questions, searched for the information. Came on time. Excellent productivity.

- Insurance and financial services company

Safa completed her first project within the first week, for the same project coop students take 2 months. Spend time and on weekends learning new applications. Became more confident. We are helping her network, write resumes, and practice the software suites that most software developer firms require.

- IT start-up

Rashida is always willing to jump right in and offers support and help when needed. She asks questions and gives feedback. She is very supportive and is very gentle and loving with the children…Rashida conducts herself in a professional manner while she is working and communicating with all staff and all children.

- Private school

This project is funded by the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Skills Strategy.

Who We Are

The Regina Open Door Society (RODS) is a non-profit organization that provides settlement and integration services to refugees and immigrants in Regina. RODS is committed to meeting the needs of newcomers by offering programs and services that enable them to achieve their goals and participate fully in the larger community.

_{Charitable Registration #: 119114205RR0001}

Contact Us

It's Thursday 6:01 PM — Sorry, we're closed

Email Us
(306) 352-3500
Address
2314 11th Avenue
Regina , SK S4P 0K1

Media inquiries/requests send to media@rods.sk.ca

Join our Mailing List

Subscribe below to get the latest news and updates from RODS!