Healthy Communities • YMCA Employment Programs • YMCA Youth Programs
Bridging the digital divide: How the YMCA facilitates bright futures for youth in the digital job sector
18 July 2016 - by June Findlay
The story is so familiar that we likely know at least one person who’s currently living it: a recent graduate — fresh out of school, or a little bit longer than that — who is bright-eyed, ambitious, daring, and armed with all of the knowledge one can possibly acquire in their post-secondary years. They graduated, not only with a degree, but from a life of late-night essay writing and poor nutrition (hey, instant noodles are definitely not in the four food groups) and a flurry of extracurricular activities.
But for some reason, they can’t get hired.
Indeed, this is a national issue: estimates suggest that one third of Canadian postsecondary grads are underemployed. In other words, the barista making your latte could very well be a brilliant coder looking for a stable gig somewhere.
On the flipside, companies employing people with so-called digital skills (coding, programming, digital marketing, and graphic design, among others) are having trouble finding the people they need: a report by the Information and Technology Association of Canada states that there’s as many as 106,000 jobs that will go unfilled in the next four years because there’s apparently not enough people to fill them.
What do you do when you have skilled grads that need valuable experience, and employers looking for them? Ask Agathe and Shondra, director and job developer of the YMCA’s Digital Skills Youth Internship Program (DSYIP), and they’ll tell you: build a bridge.
The DSYIP facilitates 16-week paid internships across Canada that pair digital experts with employers from the for- and non-profit sectors that need people with these skills. Interns are placed with mentors at the organizations as part of their career development during their internship. This year, the goal is to place 129 interns in various organizations.
Agathe and Shondra have seen a lot of applications, resumes, and candidate profiles in the short time that they’ve facilitated the program. For them, one thing is for certain: there is a need that is finally being addressed. “The short term goal is to make the internship happen, but in the long run, it’s actually more about who has a job after it’s over," says Agathe. "That’s why we can say right now that we have an 80 percent success rate, and it’s been that way for the last 2-3 years.”
For more information about the program (including how to apply as an organization or an intern), click here.
But for some reason, they can’t get hired.
Indeed, this is a national issue: estimates suggest that one third of Canadian postsecondary grads are underemployed. In other words, the barista making your latte could very well be a brilliant coder looking for a stable gig somewhere.
On the flipside, companies employing people with so-called digital skills (coding, programming, digital marketing, and graphic design, among others) are having trouble finding the people they need: a report by the Information and Technology Association of Canada states that there’s as many as 106,000 jobs that will go unfilled in the next four years because there’s apparently not enough people to fill them.
What do you do when you have skilled grads that need valuable experience, and employers looking for them? Ask Agathe and Shondra, director and job developer of the YMCA’s Digital Skills Youth Internship Program (DSYIP), and they’ll tell you: build a bridge.
The DSYIP facilitates 16-week paid internships across Canada that pair digital experts with employers from the for- and non-profit sectors that need people with these skills. Interns are placed with mentors at the organizations as part of their career development during their internship. This year, the goal is to place 129 interns in various organizations.
Agathe and Shondra have seen a lot of applications, resumes, and candidate profiles in the short time that they’ve facilitated the program. For them, one thing is for certain: there is a need that is finally being addressed. “The short term goal is to make the internship happen, but in the long run, it’s actually more about who has a job after it’s over," says Agathe. "That’s why we can say right now that we have an 80 percent success rate, and it’s been that way for the last 2-3 years.”
For more information about the program (including how to apply as an organization or an intern), click here.
