Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) is currently accepting proposals from organizations interested in receiving financial assistance from the Skills Link program.

Project activities can be provincial or territorial or local in scope. Activities must be confined to one province or territory.

The Skills Link program is a component of the Government of Canada's Youth Employment Strategy (YES). Through funding for organizations, the Skills Link program helps youth overcome barriers to employment, develop a broad range of skills and knowledge in order to participate in the current and future labour market and to promote education and skills as being key to labour market participation. These barriers include, but are not limited to, challenges faced by recent immigrant youth, youth with disabilities, single parent youth, youth who have not completed high school, Indigenous youth, and youth living in rural or remote areas.

Apply for Skills Link funding now

Deadline: August 12, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time

There are 2 (two) streams for this Call for Proposals.

When possible, submit only one proposal (per stream) and that can include multiple activities in the same province or territory.

Stream One will prioritize and will award additional points to projects that focus on the following program priorities highlighted by this Call for Proposals:

• Projects that target green jobs
• Projects that incorporate Essential Skills
• Projects that target female at–risk youth
• Projects that target Indigenous youth
• Projects that fill high demand labour market needs that are currently met through the use of Temporary Foreign Workers
• Applicants that leverage a minimum of 20% of funding from other sources
• Projects that facilitate youth mobility to access employment opportunities

Stream Two will focus on projects that demonstrate Social Innovation, more specifically, but not exclusively:

• Testing innovative approaches
• Social enterprise

Please note that Stream Two proposals can include some or all components of Stream One, however, Stream Two projects will be set apart by the Social Innovation Component included in the project that is utilized to reach the expected results of the Skills Link program.

Source: Service Canada