Youth Job Connection (YJC)

The Youth Job Connection program serves youth aged 15 to 29 who experience multiple and/or complex barriers to employment by providing more intensive supports beyond traditional job search and placement opportunities.

Supports include:

  • Paid pre-employment training to promote job-readiness;
  • Job matching and paid job placements, with placement supports for participants and hiring incentives for employers;
  • Mentorship services; and
  • Education and work transitions supports.

Youth Job Connection consists of two components:

  • A year-round component, which provides intensive employment supports for youth aged 15 to 29 who are not in employment, education or training and who experience multiple barriers to employment.
  • A summer component – Youth Job Connection: Summer – which provides summer, part-time and after-school job opportunities to high school students, aged 15 to 18, who are facing challenging life circumstances and may need support transitioning between school and work.

Youth Job Connection is one program in a new, more comprehensive and targeted suite of employment programs and services the Ontario government has implemented to more effectively help young people across a broader spectrum of needs improve their skills and find work. This includes Youth Job Connection and the existing Employment Service.

Youth Job Connection was developed as part of the government’s major reinvestment in the Ontario Youth Jobs Strategy, as well as its initiative to modernize and transform employment and training programs and services to make them evidence-based, better coordinated, more targeted and more effective for people across the province, including young people.

Including Youth Job Connection, there are more than 30 government programs to help youth build skills, find a job or start a business.

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