Youth-servicing employment agencies across Canada use a variety of digital tools to support intake and assessment of youth in delivery programs. The number of tools used are vast and varying in their success when it comes to engagement with and supporting youth. As such, First Work collaborated on a research study to grasp the number of tools available, valuated their success in practice, and determined the barriers existing for introducing new tools into youth-servicing employment services.

In partnership with OTEC and MaRS Discovery District, First Work conducted research with employment service providers, youth, and employers across the country to answer the following key research questions:

• What intake/assessment tools are used by youth-serving employment service providers across Canada?
• What value do the intake/assessment tools provide to employment service providers, youth, and employers?
• What are the enablers and barriers at the systemic, operational and user-based levels of introducing new intake/assessment tools into youth-serving employment service providers?

The initiative incorporated a diverse range of voices from the employment and training ecosystem, the private sector, youth, and leaders in Canada’s workforce development sector. Over the course of the research, First Work discovered a wide variety of digital tools both within and beyond the scope of the original research objective. These tools were captured, aggregated, and categorized according to the pathway to employment framework developed by First Work.  These complementary tools are considered helpful for employment service providers, private sector, and youth to navigate through the different stages of career pathway.

Digital Tools used by the Employment Service Provider Network in Canada