Media.Knet.Ca

From FedNor press releases

Minister Mitchell Announces Youth Retention Strategy for Northern Ontario

NORTH BAY, Ontario, October 28, 2005 — The Honourable Andy Mitchell, Minister of State (FedNor), and Anthony Rota, Member of Parliament for Nipissing–Timiskaming, today announced a comprehensive $8M FedNor Youth Retention Strategy aimed at helping Northern Ontario youth gain valuable skills and work experience. The Strategy consists of three components: strengthening the highly-successful Youth Internship Program, funding for strategic post-secondary education initiatives, and helping build community capacity.

“The Government of Canada, through FedNor, is providing the tools that communities need to help keep their youth living and working in Northern Ontario,” said Minister Mitchell. “This three-pronged strategy will build on the success of past initiatives and provide a framework for future generations.”

“The FedNor Youth Retention Strategy will not only strengthen our economy, it will provide our young people with the necessary skills and experience to help them secure permanent employment in Northern Ontario,” added Mr. Rota.

The first component of the Youth Retention Strategy involves a $3.8M investment to further strengthen the proven FedNor Youth Internship Program. This funding will create at least 150 new and exciting employment opportunities for Northern Ontario youth over the next two years.

The FedNor Youth Internship Program is designed to provide invaluable hands-on work experience, allowing the intern to gain the necessary experience and skills to secure permanent employment in Northern Ontario.

Since its inception in 1997, FedNor has provided funding to help 875 young Northerners, in both the public and private sectors, make the successful transition from the campus to the workplace. Approximately 400 different organizations have benefited from FedNor’s Youth Internship Program.

“Every external evaluation of the Youth Internship Program has recorded impressive results,” said Minister Mitchell. “More than 80% of youth interns were employed in Northern Ontario after their internship ended. The organizations benefit from the skills the interns offer and the funding available while the interns benefit from their work experience and networking opportunities. Clearly, the program is having a positive impact in the North.”

The second component of FedNor’s Youth Retention Strategy, consists of $3.2M for education and skills training. Through strategic investment in partnerships with Northern Ontario colleges and universities, the Strategy will help increase the North’s capacity to provide highly skilled and highly trained graduates to Northern Ontario’s business and industrial communities.

Initiatives under this component will help meet the needs of the mining and forestry industries, as well as industrial and bio-medical research organizations, by producing qualified graduates with strong roots in the North.

The third component of FedNor’s Youth Retention Strategy – community capacity building – will concentrate on engaging and working with First Nations, community economic development organizations and not-for-profit groups to plan and implement initiatives directed at increasing the knowledge and awareness among youth regarding employment opportunities, skills training and socio-economic development. FedNor will invest $1M in eligible activities, including leadership initiatives designed to encourage the participation of youth in community planning and regional issues, as well as regional business fairs.

Through its many youth initiatives, FedNor has supported some 844 youth-related projects across Northern Ontario over the past six years. The FedNor Youth Retention Strategy will be implemented immediately to build on this high level of success and ensure that Northern youth have a future in Northern communities.

FedNor’s Youth Retention Strategy complements the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy, which includes Service Canada’s Skills Link, Summer Career Placement programs and Youth Service Canada, aimed at putting out-of-school and unemployed young people back to work.

By working with organizations involved in economic development and by creating meaningful work experiences for youth, FedNor is opening doors and building futures in Northern Ontario.

Funding for this initiative was provided for in the February 2005 federal budget and is therefore built into the existing fiscal framework.

To find out more about FedNor, visit us at http://fednor.ic.gc.ca

- 30 -

For more information, please contact:

Graeme Wilkes
Director of Communications
Office of the Honourable Andy Mitchell
Minister of State (FedNor)
(613) 947-5850

Peter Williams
Communications Officer
FedNor
(705) 670-6244 or 1 877 333-6673

Created: 2005-10-28

Changing Course: Improving Aboriginal Access to Post-Secondary Education in Canada - a paper describing what the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation is doing to address this issue. Click here for the full paper (PDF - 8 pages)

The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation is a private, independent organization created by an act of Parliament in 1998. The Foundation works to improve access to post-secondary education for Canadians from all backgrounds; it encourages a high level of achievement and engagement in Canadian society; and it brings people and organizations together to understand barriers and improve access to post-secondary education in Canada. Each year, the Foundation distributes $340 million in bursaries and scholarships to students across Canada.

The Research Program
The Millennium Research Program furthers the work of the Foundation by undertaking research and pilot projects aimed at understanding and reducing barriers to post-secondary education. It ensures that policymaking and public discussion about opportunities in higher education in Canada can be informed by the best available evidence.

Some findings from this paper ...

First Nations people do not feel welcome on university and college campuses. Only 20% agreed that jobs in First Nations communities do not require post-secondary education.

Among First Nations youth not planning to go on to college or university, financial barriers are most frequently cited as holding them back: 59% say they have to work to support their family while 40% say they do not have enough money.

When asked about why they are not planning on attending post-secondary education, only 27% say it is because they do not want to leave their communities; 25% because their grades are not good enough; 20% because they do not think they need post-secondary education; and 18% because they simply do not like school.

When those youth who are planning to go to post-secondary education are asked if anything might change their plans, 48% say it would be a lack of money, 43% say they may need to work to support their family and 42% say it would be because their grades are not good enough.

Three pilot projects that the foundation is sponsoring to develop strategies to address these issues include:

• “Making Education Work,” a comprehensive program of academic preparation and student and family support for students at selected Aboriginal high schools in Manitoba, to help ensure that these students are ready to make the step to post-secondary education should they choose to;
• The Millennium Aboriginal Access Bursary for first-year Aboriginal students in Saskatchewan, to help lower the costs of their first step into post-secondary education; and,
• “Le,nonet,” a program offering financial, academic and cultural support to Aboriginal students at the University of Victoria in British Columbia to ensure that those who do get to university have the best chance of succeeding.

A second paper ... Embracing Differences: Post-Secondary Education among Aboriginal Students, Students with Children and Students with Disabilities, prepared By: David Holmes in Ottawa for the The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation is also available on-line (Click here to see this 93 page PDF document). 

This report presents an overview of the state of Canadian post-secondary education for Aboriginal Peoples, people with disabilities and students with children. The report analyzes results from two 2002 surveys — the Canadian Undergraduate Student Survey and the Canadian College Student Survey — and places these data in social and historical context.