Summary: Mid-cycle assessment of the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy

Alternate formats

Program objectives

The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (the Strategy) helps young people (between the ages of 15 and 30), particularly those facing barriers to employment, get the information and gain the skills, work experience and abilities they need to make a successful transition into the labour market.

The Department of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) leads the horizontal initiative, which involves 11 other federal departments, agencies, and Crown corporations.

The Strategy consists of two components.

Youth Employment and Skills Strategy program (YESSP) provides funding to organizations to deliver a range of interventions that help youth overcome barriers to employment and develop a broad range of skills and knowledge to participate in the current and future labour market.

Canada Summer Jobs targets youth to participate in summer work placements, supported by mentorship. It provides wage subsidies to employers for small businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and the public sector.

The Strategy investment

The Strategy represents a total funding of almost $4.5 billion between fiscal years 2019 to 2020 and 2023 to 2024. ESDC receives over 73% of the total funding allocation.

Evaluation objectives

The purpose of the mid-cycle assessment is to:

• present the early results of ESDC’s components of the Strategy, including results of the Covid-19 temporary flexibilities

• inform the implementation of the new performance measurement framework

Evaluation methodology

Findings are drawn from 5 lines of evidence:

• key informant interviews
• document review
• literature review
• survey of Canada Summer Jobs employers
• data analysis

Key findings