On October 17, our 2013 Youth Are Working Participants celebrated the completion of the 40 week Skills Link project at a ceremony held at the Guv’Nor Inn in St. John’s. Employees of Waypoints, representatives from the Provincial and Federal Government along with Youth Are Working support staff and volunteers were on hand to celebrate the successes of our youth over the past year.
Rick Kelly, Executive Director of Waypoints, Tara Laing, Waypoints Board Chair, Geoff Newman, Manager of Youth Grants of the Department of Advance Education and Skills and Janice Chaulk, Program Officer Employment and Social Development Canada all brought greetings and warm wishes to our participants.
Hugo McCarthy, Project Manager at Youth are Working, says the participants in this year’s project are now much better prepared for career opportunities and for a return to school. Kim Buckingham, Career Development/ Outreach Specialist at Youth Are Working says she is very proud of the graduates and spoke to their commitment to their employers and to reaching their individual goals.
Everyone at Waypoints and Youth Are Working are very proud of this year’s graduates. Youth in our program completed seven weeks of pre-employment training, a thirty week job placement, one week of exposure to careers and two weeks of post-employment training/assessment. Participants also earned both high school and adult basic education credits during the 40 week project. David Banfield provided educational support to the participants this year and says, many of the fears of returning to a learning environment have been alleviated by their involvement in the program at Waypoints. They are now eager to move forward with getting their high school diplomas and eventually a trade or other post-secondary diploma.
Youth are Working would like to thank the employers who partnered with our program to give our participants fantastic work experience and skills that they can now apply to future employment opportunities.
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Youth are Working is funded through a partnership with Employment and Social Development Canada, the Department of Advanced Education and Skills and Waypoints Inc.