Building Employability Skills in

Nova Scotian YouthA TWO-YEAR PILOT

Youth

Employment

Programs

Student Summer Skills Incentive: Provides not-for-profit employers with a wage subsidy to hire post secondary students for 8-14 weeks.

Co-operative Education Incentive:Provides employers in most sectors with a wage subsidy to hire Co-op secondary students. Most terms are 16 weeks long.

Graduate to Opportunity:A subsidy that incents employers to hire post-secondary graduates in their first year out of school. Provides 25% of the first and 12.5% of the second year’s salary. Must be a new job to the employer.

Innovate to Opportunity:A subsidy that incents employers to hire Masters’ and Doctoral graduates in new jobs focussed on export and innovation. Provides 35% of the first, 25% of the second and 12.5% of the third year’s salary.

Rick Alexander - Director

Rhia Perkins – Corporate Strategist

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The NS Employment Ecosystem

18 Nova Scotia

Works centresNSCDA

LAE – Youth and

ENS

FutureworxCEI

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53 locations

The Employability Skills Gap

• Research tells us that soft skills will be

essential in the future economy. (Conference Board of Canada, Deloitte, RBC)

• Surveys of business leaders show

employers seek students proficient in:

• Communication

• Teamwork

• Demonstrating motivation

• Professionalism(Business and Higher Education Roundtable and by the Canadian Foundation of

Independent Business)

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Designing the Initiative

• YEP partnered with the NSCDA to develop a workshop to be delivered by NSW Centres

• Futureworx wanted to increase the use of their Essential Skills Assessment Tool(ESAT)

• In partnership, we developed a custom program based on the ESAT.

• The program design aimed to build:

• Employability skills in students

• Supervisory capacity in not-for-profit employers

• Additional program capacity for NS Works centres.

• Rigorous evaluation support from CEI was built into the design.

The SKILLS

ACCOUNTABILITY

ADAPTABILITY

ATTITUDE

CONFIDENCE

MOTIVATION

PRESENTATION

PROBLEM SOLVING

STRESS MANAGEMENT

TEAMWORK

TIME MANAGEMENT

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Pilot Year One

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Design – Year 1

• 4 sites: Bridgewater, Halifax, Sydney, Truro

• Student and employer workshops• Free of cost to employers

• Students were paid by employers to attend

• Multiple check-ins using the ESAT tool

By the Numbers

Total Budget - $70,000

Wages: $48,000

Travel: $8,500

Delivery Expenses: $13,500

(includes staff training, professional fees, catering, etc.)

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Implementation

• Approximately 400 employers were approached.

• Focus group

• Mass emails

• Calls

• Four Coordinators hired on secondment to deliver workshops and coach students and employers.

• 30 employers and 55 students participated.

• Scheduling was… challenging.

The Workshops

The employer workshop focussed on an

introduction to the 9 skills defined by ESAT (Problem Solving was

added in year 2) and a demonstration of the tool.

Discussion about managing student employees

Students met for two days. Mix of presentations, activities,

and book-work.

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• Employers 94% satisfied

• Students 76% satisfied

• Majority of students learned new skills

• Lots of learning!

Seeing the

comparisons in my

skills plot was

certainly an eye-

opener… - student

….helped address

new areas we had

not thought to

mention. - employer

Results12

What we Learned... We needed to adjust and enhance the role of the coordinators

Communication and logistics needed centralization

We needed better integration with NS Works

Employers wanted more from their time together

The success of the tool was contingent on getting the right participants

Students needed more advanced content

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14The evaluation made 14 recommendations:

• Enhance content

• Improve timing

• More robust student selection

• Clearer roles and responsibilities

• More effective use of tools & tech

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Pilot Year Two

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Design – Year 2

• 9 sites: From Yarmouth to

Sydney!

• Employer workshops prior to

student start date

• Revised curriculum &

enhanced training for

facilitators

• Increased staffing

• More employer participation

17Building Interest

By the Numbers

Total Budget - $160,000

Wages: $107,500

Travel: $25,500

Delivery Expenses: $27,000

(includes staff training, professional fees, catering, etc.)

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Implementation• Five Coordinators and five “Champions” to ensure

support across the province

• Logistics coordinator to centralize scheduling

• Approached employers at beginning of SKILL

application process

• Student sessions staggered to accommodate start

dates. Individual sessions for employers with many

students.

• 80 employers and 109 students attended

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• Employer session – half day

• Employability Skills

• Intergenerational Workplaces

• Feedback for Gen Z

ΩThe Workshops

• Student session – two days

• Employability Skills & how to

demonstrate them

• Activities, discussions and lecture

• Employers 97% satisfied with workshop,

100% found the content relevant

• Students 88% satisfied or very satisfied

• 99% said the workshop was relevant, and

82% learned new skills

• Debrief with staff positive, but still more

learnings.

• Evaluation report expected October.

It makes you reflect

on skills that you

might not normally

consider.- student

Great response to

industry needs!- employer

Preliminary Results 21

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Year Three?