Empower - Empowering YOung Canadians with Info & Voice

Research from the Burning Glass Institute shows that growth in entry-level roles — the traditional launchpad for postsecondary graduates — is being suppressed as organizations adopt generative AI. New graduates now face fewer pathways into the labour market at the moment they need them most.

Research shows that graduates who participate in Work-Integrated Learning (WIL), especially co-operative education, outperform their peers by 16%. Yet traditional WIL programs are limited and highly competitive, while many newer WIL options — including paid programs that cost employers nothing — go underused simply because students and employers don’t know they exist.

CanWorks will strengthen collaboration across the existing ecosystem to improve students’ and new graduates’ understanding of labour-market trends and modern job-search tactics, and to empower them to influence education and policy.   

Host WIL Open House events at postsecondary institutions to spotlight under-utilized WIL programs and significantly improve students’ access to career-starting opportunities.

Deliver the Open House in collaboration with WIL program partners, campus career centres, and student unions, ensuring broad reach, trusted engagement, and clear pathways to participation.

Partner with career centres, counsellors, and student unions to implement programs giving easy students and new graduates access to up-to-date labour market trends, and training in effective networking. 

Collaborate with student unions and associations to accelerate policy and education reform, prioritizing the integration of Work-Integrated Learning (e.g., internships and co-ops) as a mandatory part of education and ensuring the collection and easy access of up-to-date labour-market data.

Generate analytics and reporting to measure social impact, inform public policy, strengthen cross-sector collaboration, and guide continuous improvements within CanWorks.