How to motive and engage Hamilton youth

Vol. 10, Issue 3, October 18, 2018

Hamilton's Labour Market Connection

Your weekly news & updates from WPH!

In this week's edition: Our Igniting the Spark project looked at why youth may not be using local employment services; Understanding NEET youth; What you need to know about cannabis in the workplace.

Igniting the Spark: How to Engage & Motivate Youth

In 2016 WPH undertook a project to better understand the reluctance of youth when it comes to accessing employment services.

We worked in partnership with the Neighbourhood Action Strategy and youth from identified neighbourhoods in Hamilton. Youth were involved in a "secret shopper" approach to survey the youth friendliness of Hamilton employment services.

Overall, when thinking of everything that they had experienced during their visits at the various

employment services the majority of youth scored the services to be “average.” Just under half scored the services as “average” and another 41% scored them as “very good.

The positive elements of youth-friendly services and key areas for improvement when it comes to making services welcoming to youth were noted.

An additional part of this project was a partnership with the Youth Employment Network which launched a new youth focused website that includes an employment, training and wrap around youth services portal.

The site can be viewed at www.youthemploymentnetwork.ca

Click here to access the Igniting the Spark report.

Understanding NEET (not in employment, education or training) youth

Young people who are not studying, in training or working make up the 'NEET' group.

The NEET indicator has been regularly published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development since the late 1990s, as NEET

youth are considered to be potentially at risk for economic and social difficulties.

Understanding and monitoring the NEET rate of young adults is important as it may be an indicator of potential problems in certain systems (education, labour market) or social trends among young adults, such as a change in the relative importance of work compared with time devoted to the family, travel, and volunteering.

Fascinating facts about NEET youth

In 2017/2018, 73% of young Canadians aged 25 to 29 were out of school and employed, 12% were still in school and 15%, or 376,000 individuals, were not in employment, education or training
NEET rates increase with age; young Canadians aged 25 to 29 years had a higher NEET rate (15%) than 15- to 19-year-olds (5%) and 20- to 24-year-olds (13%).
Women are more likely than men to belong to the inactive NEET category
The highest NEET rate for the 25-to-29 age group is due to a high proportion of inactive NEET women.
In 2017/2018, 72% of the 246,700 inactive NEET individuals aged 25 to 29 said they did not want a job.