The Youth Skills Link Initiative has been a successful program that has worked well for the youth who participate in it, Chinook's Edge School Division trustees were told at a recent board meeting.The program is funded primarily by the federal government, with some money also coming from the provincial government and in-kind contributions from the CESD and employers who give program participants employability skills.ìIt's been a real good entrance into employment,î Michele Brewster, coordinator of the program, told trustees.Prior to this year, the program always submitted an annual funding proposal, but for 2012 it received a three-year funding commitment, which she said will be good news, allowing the three full-time staff to concentrate on the program rather than writing a new grant proposal each year. Brewster said since government officials always felt highly of the program, it has received funding each year since its inception in 1994.It gets about $200,000 each year from the federal government, plus about another $80,000 in in-kind contributions.The program usually takes in about 15 youths in rotating communities throughout the school division. Next year, the program will return to Olds for the first time in about seven years. The year after that, the program is scheduled to be in Sundre. The program stretches from the CESD boundaries of Innisfail in the north to Carstairs in the south and Sundre in the west.The initial 22 weeks of the program teaches unemployed youth aged 16 to 29 who aren't attending school employability skills such as resume writing and other soft skills. The next 26 weeks are spent with employers learning on the job. Brewster told trustees that many of the youths that participate in the program are functionally illiterate.ìMost of them do extremely well. They want to have success in the workplace and so we try to facilitate that for them. A lot of them don't have the skills or the understanding of the world of work, and so that's what we do,î she said.As an incentive, youth who stick with the program for the full 48 weeks receive a bonus of $1,000.Brewster said there has been an 86 per cent success rate of youth who participate in the program continuing with that employment beyond the end of the year. Some have gone on to become welders or electricians. Brewster said she is a big supporter of encouraging youth to return to the land through agricultural or horticultural work.ìI'm a big believer in dirt therapy,î she said, adding, ìI think the big thing that has made this program so successful is the intake is stable.îAnother reason Brewster pointed to as a reason for the program's success is that unlike other programs of its kind, the Youth Skills Link Initiative allows participants to choose their own jobs, rather than the entire program focusing on one industry, as some do.
