Youth Employment and Educational Strategies. Research Context Research Objectives Methods & Sampling Strategies Emerging Themes

Transcription

1 Youth Employment and Educational Strategies Research Context Research Objectives Methods & Sampling Strategies Emerging Themes

2 Research Context Two of the key determinants associated with youth risks and social exclusion are youth experiences in education and their prospects for finding gainful employment. Despite Jane-Finch community s proximity to York University, there is a generally low level of educational attainment by youth Youth in the community face pervasive unemployment

3 Research Context While the youth unemployment rate for Jane-Finch is similar for Toronto CMA (about 15%), it varies considerably among various local census tracts Tobermory and Finch area has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the city of about 34.5%. The educational and employment situation is why Jane-Finch is identified as an atrisk neighbourhood

4 Research Objectives Explore youth s perception of barriers and opportunities in labour market attachment and integration. Examine the impact of geographical location on youth employability and how youth internalize their location in terms of what is accessible to them Investigate employers perceptions of youth and their employability

5 Research Methods Youth Perceptions: Two focus group sessions with youth (8 youth in each session) In-depth Interviews with 36 youth Ethnographic observations Employer Perceptions: Interviews with 30 employers purposively chosen from different sectors

6 Youth Interviews Recruitment and sampling: Snowball sampling Collaboration with community partners Black Creek Health Centre, The Spot, Driftwood C.C, JVS, PEACH, York-TD CEC Purposeful sampling based on four categories Actively seeking employment (N=20) Employed but feeling frustrated (N=7) Not employed and not in school (N=6) Employed and satisfied (N=3)

7 Emerging Themes Barriers Systemic gaps within the educational system Motivational & self-esteem issues Geographical barriers Sense of powerlessness Resilience

8 Systemic gaps within the educational system Curriculum issues Inadequate preparation for the world of work Not exposed to precollege requirements Unaware of options available to them And career class was a joke. In career class, the teacher we had, everyone was running wild and no one cared. Like, it wasn t inspirational (Female; Employed and Satisfied)

9 Systemic gaps within the educational system The guidance counselors, I don t think they did their job in trying to, or they weren t able to do their job, in trying to get children motivated for post-secondary education or college or whatever, or careers, because they were so focused on trying to get kids in courses, like they just wanted to deal with issues like people not having enough credits and that sort of thing. And they weren t able to do their job as a guidance counselor, they weren t able to guide you (Female; Employed and Satisfied).

10 Systemic gaps within the educational system Guidance counselors, the thing is, they deal with a lot of students, so you don t have a lot of personal connection with them. They don t know you by your first name unless they read your folder. With them, they see you on a mark to mark basis. So, okay, you re taking academic, but your mark is 50 in this subject, well that s life. Rather than, Hey, you know what, if you take applied, you might not be able to go to university. They re not explaining that to you until you re in grade 11, and by that time, you ve taken applied from grade 9 because your guidance counselor suggested it..and that happened to a lot of friends of mine. Even now, when I go to schools, and I do these talks and I talk about my experiences, a lot of them say the same thing (Male; Actively Seeking Employment)

11 Motivational, self-esteem and learning gaps Newcomer youth: language barriers, recognition of foreign credentials and work experience, culture shock, racism Newcomer youth Vs Canadian-born youth: Differing perceptions on opportunities and implications for future planning

12 Motivational, self-esteem and learning gaps Canadian-born youth: I don t have a plan. That is the flaw in my whole entire thing, I don t have a plan sometimes I feel discouraged, about it. Ummm, because I don t know how to go about it, especially in this business [Photography] (Female; Canadian Youth; Employed and Feeling Frustrated)

13 Motivational, self-esteem and learning gaps Newcomer Youth: coming here, I knew what I wanted to do, it was just a mindset of finding out how to get this done, um, what steps I need to go though to get going people may feel that this community is deprived of a lot of things but it is actually not so I definitely think there isn t much barriers, if you are definitely looking for volunteer, it is there in the community. If you are definitely looking for a job, it may not be here in the community, but there are um, what would you say now, there are institutes that can help you find these jobs that you are looking for Female; Newcomer; Employed and Satisfied

14 Barriers: Geographical location I hate like when you go in and you hand them your resume and they just look at you, size you automatically saying, hmm, hmm. We get funding but it is like they fund us like for normal stuff, like the typical stuff, like because we are from here, we have to go to a basketball game, and stuff like that, like we were talking about it, and we were like, we want to go to like an art gallery, something new, like, even stuff like that (Female; Actively Seeking Employment)

15 Barriers: Geographical location Something within the community is good or something that allows for flexibility is good Flexibility for travel, for family, and for other accommodations that I have (Male; Employed and Satisfied) I think, I guess people should invest in the community then. Start up businesses (Female; Employed and Satisfied)