Summer Jobs for Students

Backgrounder

April 11, 2014

Ontario is investing $78.5 million toward summer jobs programs this year in addition to investing $295 million over two years through the Youth Jobs Strategy to help 30,000 young people aged 15 to 29 find work, build job skills and start their own businesses.

Summer jobs programs include:

• Summer Jobs Service – a free job search and self-marketing service that helps students find summer jobs. Students aged 15 to 30 who plan to return to school this fall are eligible. Self-marketing and job search services are available through 135 Employment Ontario service providers across the province.

• Employer Incentive – eligible Ontario employers interested in hiring summer students can qualify for a $2-per-hour hiring incentive to provide summer jobs for up to 16 weeks. Rural employers can apply to the Rural Summer Jobs Service and northern employers can apply to their local Ministry of Northern Developmentand Mines Northern Development Office.

• Summer Company – provides students aged 15 to 29 with hands-on business training, mentoring and grants of up to $3,000 to start and run their own summer businesses. Participants keep the profits generated through the operation of their businesses. Applications will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis until May 23, 2014, or sooner if the program reaches capacity. High school students must operate the business full time for a minimum of eight weeks. Postsecondary students must operate full time for a minimum of 12 weeks.

• Jobs for Youth – provides young people aged 15 to 18 who live in identified communities with jobs so they can get real work experience. The program generally operates for up to eight weeks in July and August and includes pre-employment training and post-employment support. As part of Ontario’s Youth Action Plan, Jobs for Youth has been expanded to include after-school jobs during the school year in some communities. Application deadlines vary by community.

• Aboriginal Youth Work Exchange Program – offers eight-week work placements for Aboriginal youth aged 15 to 24 (up to 29 for persons with disabilities) focusing on resource management projects, job skills readiness and personal development training. Each participant has the opportunity to remain with the program over three consecutive summers, working with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Aboriginal communities and organizations. Positions are posted until June and are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.

• Stewardship Youth Rangers – an eight-week summer job program that offers youth born in 1997 (turning 17 in 2014) the opportunity to focus on a variety of natural resource management projects. Projects may include cleaning up streams, maintaining trails, creating wildlife habitats, removing invasive species, and studying species at risk. Stewardship Youth Rangers live at home, report to a central work location daily, and travel as a five-person team to different work sites. The deadline for applications is April 25.

NT5