10th April 2012

Ottawa killed Katimavik – and missed boat on youth jobs strategy ↘

livelaughawesome:

politicalcanuck:

jakke:

Hey, look, another thing the government scrapped that isn’t the penny but is way more important: a program that set up three four-month internships for new high school grads in three different provinces and arranged for them all to live together in each city.

It did all the right things for new grads: gave them a chance to learn both English and French (because language education in Canada is terrible), a chance to see the country and meet new people and build their resumes, and enough support that it was generally feasible even if they were from relatively low-income families. Not saying it was entirely perfect, but Katimavik almost definitely had a way greater impact on employment outcomes per government dollar than, say, a BA in English from a heavily-subsidized university.

However, apparently the metric we’re using now for employment readiness is just going to be the completion of a degree. I guess this is because a degree is a signal of a middle-class background and the middle-aged people who vote want their kids to go get degrees. In terms of connecting all these highly-educated graduates to jobs in what’s increasingly a low-skills primary-resource-extraction economy, though, this was an absolutely terrible idea.

Shannon Goodhead and Jacq Brasseur, Katimavik Alumni have started a petition to urge the Minister of Heritage to save Katimavik.

Jacq Brasseur!

That’s me!

<3

Sign this petition, guys!

Jacq, you’re so inspiring. 

(via livelaughawesome)