The Manitoba government has launched this year’s summer employment programs to create jobs for youth across the province through partnerships with not-for-profit organizations, rural municipalities, private businesses, and government departments and agencies. This announcement was made by Children and Youth Opportunities Minister Kevin Chief.
“It may be the last week of school for some, but for thousands of youth across the province, the learning and growing continues through summer employment programs that will allow them to train for valuable employment opportunities,” said Chief. “These job opportunities will give many their first job experience and the opportunity to explore careers and develop essential skills that we need to build Manitoba’s future workforce.”
The provincial government has committed to increasing Manitoba’s workforce by 75,000 by 2020. Providing young people with employment opportunities is a first step in meeting this goal and also an investment in the province’s future workforce success, Chief noted.
This year, Manitoba Children and Youth Opportunities is contributing more than $9 million to summer employment programs, which will support over 5,000 employment opportunities for young people throughout the province.
Among the young people attending today’s announcement were groups from Shamattawa, Paungassi and Lac Brochet, presently in Winnipeg for training through the Winnipeg Aboriginal Sports Achievement Centre North program. This training will allow these young people to return to work in summer jobs such as nurses’ assistants at the nursing station in their communities, the minister said.
The province also supports summer employment for youth through programs including:
- STEP Services, the official student employment placement service of the Manitoba government. Last year hundreds of students found full- and part-time jobs with government departments, agencies and Crown corporations.
- Manitoba’s MB4Youth employment programs, which assists youth living in rural and urban communities attending high school and post-secondary education, and youth who face multiple barriers to employment. The programs provide job matching services, wage subsidies and pre employment training.
- Career Focus, which partners with Manitoba employers and educators to create career-related work experience for high school and post-secondary students. It provides participating employers with wage subsidies that support student employment positions. On average, more than 400 student employment positions receive the wage subsidy.
- The Green Team, which creates summer employment opportunities for youth aged 15 to 29. Employers provide a variety of community development projects that improve neighbourhoods, promote community involvement and help develop young leaders. In addition, up to 20 scholarships of $500 each are available to Green Team members who demonstrate how their participation in the project has benefited the community. Green Teams employ more than 1,000 students each year.
- The Manitoba Youth Job Centres (MYJCs), which provide students and youth aged 12 to 29 with important information and education on career development and employment-related skills such as labour regulations, workplace health and safety, resume preparation, interview assistance and job-search techniques. MYJCs provide a free employment referral service for local employers, matching qualified, enthusiastic student and youth workers to summer employment opportunities.
- The Odd Job Squad, which is operated by MYJC offices as a casual labour program for 12 to 16 year olds providing supervised first work and volunteer experiences for young people looking to gain hands-on career-related skills and experience.
“Working for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg has given me opportunities and experiences that will help me in my future career as an educator. Participating in multiple programs operated by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg has allowed me to build relationships with children, their families and the greater communities they call home,” said Miranda Fogg, project assistant for the clubs.
“These summer programs not only help young people find meaningful work and gain valuable job experience, they also make for safer and healthier communities by keeping our province’s youth engaged in positive activities over the summer months and providing them the opportunity to give back,” said Chief.
