Pathways to Work
About
Research shows that Indigenous youth often face multiple barriers to employment and typically have lower employment rates than non-Indigenous youth in Canada. As in other parts of Canada, many services exist to connect youth with employment. However, unemployment rates in northern Labrador – particularly in the coastal communities of Nunatsiavut – remain high. There are also few, if any, studies that examine how to strengthen Inuit youth pathways to employment in this rural and remote context.
This project is designed to tackle two existing challenges to Inuit youth employment in Labrador:
- A lack of awareness among employers, community stakeholders, and youth about effective practices to enhance youth employment and how these could be adapted locally.
- A lack of alignment between youth’s skills and assets and the available services, resources, and opportunities in the community.
This project is intended to better understand assets and gaps in youth employment in Nunatsiavut, Labrador. Throughout the project the Social Research Development Corporation (SRDC) will work with partners and local stakeholders to create a replicable prototype for aligning the skills of local youth with available funding and job opportunities.
Primary Research Questions
- How can the perspectives of youth, employers, and community stakeholders be integrated to co-design a contextually responsive and strengthened pathway to work for Inuit youth in rural and remote communities in Labrador?
- How can a co-design process be used to improve efficiencies in aligning the emerging labour force with labour market demand and economic development opportunities?
- What can we learn from employers, community stakeholders, and Inuit youth about barriers to uptake of services currently offered to strengthen Inuit youths’ connection to employment, and the community assets and resources available to address these barriers?
Who
Research led by Social Research Development Corporation, in Consultation with Nunatsiavut Government.
Where
Research to be conducted within the rural and remote communities of Labrador.
When
April 2018 – December 2019 *This research project is completed.
Research Project Deliverables
Deliverables include a video about available resources and sharing youth, employers, and employment supports’ experiences of receiving and providing support to Nainimmuit youth, and a “Journey Map” click-through tool. This tool can be used by youth to explore options and opportunities that align with their interests, skills and experience, as well as what steps would be needed to achieve their career objectives.
Learnings from the project emphasized that 1) partnerships are vital to both the content and process of co-design, 2) Flexibility is key to ensuring co-design remains responsive and relevant, and 3) Youth must be engaged at each stage of the process.
These slides were presented at a stakeholder briefing on July 29, 2021.
