INSPIRE program

Training program links youth with employers

Getting back into employment or education can be a difficult prospect for young people in the County, but the INSPIRE program offered by the Prince Edward Learning Centre (PELC) can smooth the way. The 20-week paid program provides pre-employment training and mentoring with a work placement that matches the interests and aptitude of the participants. “It’s a program supporting young people to re-engage with employment and education,” says INSPIRE program coordinator Christine Durant. “We work with youth who have been out of employment for a while, who are newcomers, or who may identify with having health issues. So we work with youth with barriers to employment, and that’s a really broad category.” The program is funded by the federal government, and is targeted to those young people who are neither working nor are they in an education program. These youth may be coping with health and medical challenges, or experiencing poverty, and are dropping through the cracks in the social network. The program is a way to help get them back to employment, earn an income and support their personal goals. This is the fifth year the program has been operating, and it has helped many young PEC residents rejoin the workforce. “We have youth working in legal offices, with art organizations, with various trades. We have people who have been in retail and are thinking about what they want to do in the long term,” says Durant.

The program participants have been a diverse group. There are some with college or university degrees, some who have not finished high school, and some who had worked previously but have been out of employment for a while. The participants are helped on an individual basis, and based on their interests PELC will reach out to prospective employers for a placement. Employers are subsidized up to the minimum wage for a period of 16 weeks, and they are expected to offer skills development and provide learning that will help the young worker in the long term. The applicants initially receive four weeks of training at PELC—almost all online during this time of COVID—where they learn various basic skills, such as rights and responsibilities of workers, conflict resolution, and diversity and inclusion principles. There is also some specific individual work skills training, such as office software or working at heights, before the participants start with the employer. The success of the program is measured by whether the participant continues with employment or education at the end of 20 weeks.

Jeremy Johnson is one of the program participants. He had been going to PELC for his Grade 12 English credit when he was told about the INSPIRE program. He had been working in various jobs over the past several years that really didn’t align with his interests. “I was having a hard time finding employment in some place I feel that I’d enjoy. I was interested in programming and coding and the IT field, so they found me a job pretty quickly. Right now, I’m working for an IT company here in Picton, C3 Solutions. I help clients with anything from Microsoft issues to anti-virus issues,” he says. “My main focus was game design, but after starting to work here and actually seeing all that I can do, I found it to be really interesting.” He says that he received great support from PELC, particularly in dealing with some of the personal challenges he was facing. “They were extremely supportive, they were very patient and understanding, and they did a really good job of guiding me through everything.” He finds his work with C3 Solutions extremely satisfying, and expects to continue working there. “It meets my intellectual needs. It challenges me in regards to my mental capacity as well as my interests and it keeps pushing me towards where I want to be in the future.”

A new session of the program begins this week, and applications are still being accepted. Christine Durant says that all COVID-19 safety protocols are being followed, and she works individually with each applicant. “This can be a real game-changer,” she says. “I went through a similar program myself in my early 20s and it got me into my work in community development and social justice. The program can be a real lifechanger for youth who are looking at how to get started in a career, how to create a life plan. It’s a really great opportunity for youth to take advantage of. We have funding for 20 people per year, and we really encourage people to get involved in the program and look at how it can help them.”

For more information about the program, please email Christine at inspire@pelc.ca, or call 613.476.1811.