Canada’s Employment Champion for Youth
YES President & CEO was interviewed by “CIC – The voice of Canadian Immigration” and Canada’s leading on-line immigration magazine regarding the benefits to organizations of hiring new Canadians. YES works with thousands of businesses to help integrate new Canadians into the economy and drive economic growth.
YES was featured on CTV’s Toronto Together news program and run on CP24 discussing its ability to help youth during the Covid crisis by offering its programs virtually through YES-ON-DEMAND (YOD). YES CEO, Timothy Lang, and YES Youth were interviewed for the segment. YOD was funded by CITI-Foundation which helped YES create more virtual training, with its Accenture partnership, while enhancing mentorship, entrepreneurial and mental health programming. YOD was also able to train organizations nation-wide, further enhancing the reach to youth across Canada.
YES interview starts at 18:02
YES successfully hosted its very first virtual event: FORWARD TOGETHER: Employment Resources and Resiliency Strategies in a COVID World. Nearly two hundred attendees- government, community and corporate partners across Canada were joined by youth to explore innovative employment strategies that can adapt to the changing world without leaving the youth behind.
The event was opened by YES president & CEO Timothy Lang, the Honourable Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development gave remarks and endorsed YES’ long-lasting commitment on youth employment.
Keynote speaker Orlando Bowen used his own life experience to illustrate the importance of meaningful employment for youth. And this was followed by a panel discussion among David Ticoll, Chair of the National Stakeholder Advisory Panel of the Labour Market Information Council, Jerry McGranaghan, Senior Vice President at Citi Bank, and YES Manager DiAnne Brooks. They each provided valuable insights on how to prepare Canadian youth for the future of work.
During this event, YES programme manager Shari Raghoo presented the findings of YES’ latest report to review its 3-year YES On Demand! initiative, which was funded by the Citi Foundation and positively impacted Canada’s youth unemployment rate. The report also outlines YES’ strategies for the future, and how they plan to support unemployed youth through COVID-19, including YES’ collaboration with the cloud training program AWS re/Start, and its Senior Technical Evangelist Jonathan Dion demonstrated during the event why cloud jobs are among the most in-demand in a COVID/post COVID world.
The event ended successfully with the closing remarks from Sinead McCarthy, Vice President at YES, who expressed gratitude to YES staff, volunteers, funders, partners and all the event attendees for their contribution and participation.
You can learn more about YES On Demand! report by click here.
We are pleased to announce the launch of our Pre-Apprenticeship Construction Trades Program at YES!
Youth Employment Services, in partnership with Labour Education Centre (LEC), is launching an 8 week full-time pre-apprenticeship program for those interested in working in the construction trades.
The deadline to apply to the first cohort is September 18th 2020. If interested, please email lori_bottrell@yes.on.ca
YES CEO Timothy Lang welcomed Premier Doug Ford, Minister Monte McNaughton, Minister Todd Smith, Jamil Jivani, the Advocate for Community Opportunities, and MPP Jane McKenna to YES for a live news conference and government announcement. The Premier announced the Skills Catalyst program, where YES received funding for its free ‘YES2Tech Learn & Earn’ cloud computing program for youth. Premier Ford and Minster McNaughton thanked YES for its incredible work and helping so many disadvantaged youth change their lives.
Operating from the Youth Business Centre, BizStart is a full time, six month entrepreneurship training program that assists youth to start a business. The program starts October 5th.
Training is offered in marketing, business planning, management, and other business related topics. Youth are matched with a mentor from the business community for ongoing support and advice.
You can apply here.
YES is by APPOINTMENT ONLY and please register here and YES will contact you to schedule an appointment.
https://www.yes.on.ca/contact-yes-online/
Or call (416) 504-5516
For current YES clients, please contact your Career Counsellor to schedule an appointment.
Youth Employment Services (YES) is thrilled to announce our new partnership with IBM!
A technology leader serving innovation and business transformation, IBM have collaborated with YES to provide access to their innovative SkillsBuild platform which aims to help thousands of disadvantaged and vulnerable youth to develop vital professional skills, gain practical real-life experience and build their career skills in digital literacy and cloud computing. SkillsBuild is currently used in over 15 countries with 30,000 users.
According to a recent Statistics Canada report, Canada added nearly one million jobs 
in June, but there are still close to two million fewer jobs today than there were pre-COVID. The platform, available in English and French, will provide youth with over 7,000 online training courses on general and non-technical digital skills, Customer Support Representation, Web Development and Cybersecurity. YES will provide young people with access to the platform and provide support throughout their learning experience.
Read the full Press Release here.
Tim Lang was interviewed by CityNews regarding its recent partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), and the creation of the new YES2Tech program with AWS re/Start Cloud Computing training, as well as YES’ Microsoft Azure training program. These will ensure long term careers for youth while demand for jobs in these areas remain strong.
