New Programs and Initiatives

By Ilana David

Hire Prospects

What is Hire Prospects?

Hire Prospects is an exciting new survey outreach service offered by the Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres (OAYEC). The service offers researchers access to the opinions of youth across Ontario through our network of 70 youth employment centres. Whether it’s a sector council seeking insight into the career aspirations of 16 year old youth, an academic seeking information on the job-seeking process for young immigrants, or an employer who wants to test out strategies to attract young people to his business, Hire Prospects elicits youth feedback to meet these needs.

Hire Prospects works with researchers to meet their information requirements through the application of our online survey service. The survey is programmed in-house, and then accessed online by youth in our centres. Agency members and youth work together to respond to the surveys and earn a stipend for their participation. The outcome is survey results that reflect the diversity of youth seeking employment in Ontario, allowing the researchers to achieve their research goals, and encouraging the engagement of youth in our employment centres.

Each employment centre that participates in a Hire Prospects survey ensures that surveys are completed under the supervision of qualified youth employment counsellors. This process provides an opportunity for positive interaction between the youth and counselling staff, and thus enhances the value of the counselling relationship. Through information gathering and sharing, individual youth are engaged in projects that contribute to the wider realm of the youth employment sector.

Outreach potential

The OAYEC network has the potential to reach youth from all different walks of life in all corners of Ontario. The young people who come through the doors of our centres are diverse – all ages, ethnic backgrounds, educational and experience levels. While other organizations may have difficulty reaching particular hard-to-reach demographics, we are able to provide a cross-section of youth in Ontario. The young people of this province are visiting our employment centres on a daily basis, interacting with youth service professionals and making use of our multitude of services. The setting is perfect, and the capacity for outreach is huge. The Hire Prospects team at OAYEC is thrilled to be maximizing the potential of this capacity, and getting youth more involved in community research endeavours.

Our latest success

In 2004, a Hire Prospects pilot study was conducted with the goal of generating a better picture of youth workplace experiences and expectations. The survey was delivered online through our network of member agencies and the response was phenomenal. Not only did this pilot study provide important youth input for stakeholders, it also demonstrated to OAYEC the existence of an incredible outreach potential within our network. This has led to the development of Hire Prospects as the “survey outreach service” it is today.

More recently, the Hire Prospects team completed administration of a portion of a survey from the Professional Administrators of Volunteer Resources – Ontario (PAVR-O), entitled “The 40 Hours Volunteer Survey.” This survey addressed participation and opinion of out-of-school youth surrounding the 40 hours community involvement requirement for high school graduation.

After having already garnered 180 responses from their own network, PAVR-O sought the help of Hire Prospects to supplement their results with a very specific, hard-to-reach demographic – early school leavers under the age of 24. Hire Prospects took on the task of soliciting responses to this survey, and within just 5 weeks, was able to garner over 200 responses from this demographic.

Our network of agency partners were actively involved, promoting the survey to youth coming into their centres. Through the collaborative efforts of Hire Prospects and our partner centres, PAVR-O was able to greatly increase their number of responses, and will now go on to provide the community with valuable information on best practices and resources to help improve the experience of stakeholders in the 40 hours requirement.

Find out more

OAYEC is very excited to be offering the Hire Prospects service, and to be assisting researchers in engaging youth in community research. We are always seeking out new partners and encourage you to contact us to find out how we can help you in your research endeavours.

If you would like to hear more about Hire Prospects, please contact the Hire Prospects Coordinator, Ilana David (hireprospects@oayec.org) at 416-323-9557 x 222.