The BC Centre for Employment Excellence (CfEE) is pleased to announce a new three-year pilot project that is evaluating the role of Employment Social Enterprises (ESEs) in supporting labour market transitions for youth in BC facing barriers to developing their career potential.

The CfEE is partnering with the Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria to engage WorkBC Centres, employers and social entrepreneurs in at minimum two regions on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland to generate temporary paid work placements in ESEs for barriered youth. Referrals of youth for ESE placements would come from WorkBC Centres while partnering mainstream employers would be involved in both the development and identification of ESE employment opportunities that would provide effective transitional experience and skill development for their prospective employees. Post-placement, the employer partners will be involved with interviewing youth to assess their job readiness and considering them for permanent positions in their workplaces.

The project aims to recruit at minimum 225 youth in a series of cohorts—75 youth in the study group that would be offered placements and 150 youth in a comparison group that would not be offered ESE placements but would continue to receive any WorkBC programs and services for which they are eligible.

Click here to learn more about the project’s objectives and evaluation methodology.

This project is funded in whole or in part by the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia.

For queries about this project or other research activities being undertaken by the BC Centre for Employment Excellence, please contact Shawn de Raaf, the CfEE Research Coordinator.