Transitioning Youth Into the Workforce

Youth are vital to the success of rural communities and regions, however rural youth can face a range of challenges. As part of a project entitled Training, engagement, and retention: a ‘learning region’ approach to rural youth consultation was done in November-December 2015 in the West-Kootenay Boundary region to gather information specific to the local youth population in order to inform next steps related to youth workforce development. Consultation included 5 youth focus groups and 11 expert interviews focused on a series of qualitative questions related to education/training, employment, and engagement. This research was conducted in partnership with the Lower Columbia Initiatives Corporation (LCIC) and Simon Fraser University under a MITACS grant.

This research confirms the difficulty of accessing and understanding the target population, while also highlighting that there is no single approach or single solution to addressing youth issues, but rather a clear need for a range of youth specific resources, supports, and programs that are consciously and collaboratively established to be accessible to and to serve the needs of youth.

This research began with the question of what action is needed to address youth training, engagement, and retention on a regional scale? To this there is no single, clear, straightforward response. However these consultation findings suggest while currently there are programs, resources, and supports, an initial challenge appears to be related to raising the profile of what exists and enhancing access, followed by identifying gaps within what exists. This includes enhancing regional collaboration and communication among key players. While differences in context and need suggest that a blanket approach will not work, increasing the flexibility of programs, resources, and supports could allow for regional scale initiatives that can be tailored to local needs and conditions.

This consultation process and results provide a broad overview related to youth training, retention, and engagement. However, more specific and in-depth exploration is warranted. For example, looking at how the needs of ‘first jobs’ versus ‘real jobs’ differ is one option. Others include questions like how can collaboration be encouraged and supported between organizations where mandates are restrictive or lack alignment, or how can workforce development efforts balance and integrate economic and socio-cultural needs? What is clear is that youth training, retention, and engagement are not the responsibility of one single organization or person. There is clearly a role for multiple players, including a role for youth themselves.

Research Brief: Youth Workforce Development in the Basin-Boundary Region.

In addition to the Research Brief, the project produced a series of Knowledge Briefs that summarizes academic literature on topics related to youth engagement, youth retention, youth training and education, and youth workforce development. Additionally select examples and resources are available.