Federal Funding To Benefit Local Youth

Written by Shannon Dueck

The Government of Canada has announced funding to help Steinbach youth get jobs.
  
Provencher Member of Parliament Vic Toews announced Segue Career Options is receiving $151,000 from the Skills Link program to help twenty youth overcome barriers to employment.

Participants in the Segue Career Options will attend skills workshops on topics including computer use, problem solving and time management. Participants will then gain hands-on experience through work placements with local employers in fields such as retail, administration and the skilled trades.

Toews (right inset) says no matter the employment rate, there will always be a group of individuals who simply do not have the skills to find work.

"And if we don't provide them with the skills in the short term then they become a financial liability to the rest of the community over the long term," notes Toews.

Program Director Debra Stockwell says they run three sessions per year of ten individuals each. The first group has just completed the classroom portion of the training. They're now in their first week of work experience and all ten students immediately found placements.

"As a matter of fact, Dave Thiessen who finds the work for students already has employers on the waiting list for the next group," notes Stockwell. "So we have a community out here who has got huge support for what we're doing and I couldn't be happier."

Toews says the program involves one month of in class training followed by two months of teaming up with an employer.

"We want to find ways to integrate them into the community by finding them the job skills in order to find employment," says Toews. "That's exactly what this is doing. So you don't have then chronic unemployment because of the lack of skills but you have individuals who are skilled and ready to work should the right job come along."

The funding announced Tuesday covers about seventy-five per cent of the total cost of the program. The program has a success rate of about eighty per cent. The program was formerly run as the Youth Internship Program (YIP) in Steinbach for many years.