As a result of their deliberations, committees may make recommendations which they include in their reports for the consideration of the House of Commons or the Government. Recommendations related to this study are listed below.

Recommendation 1

That Employment and Social Development work with Statistics Canada to add additional questions to the National Graduate Survey and the Labour Force Survey to better capture data on a broad spectrum of experiential learning opportunities and outcomes, as well as the incidence of paid and unpaid internships. Moreover, the data collected must allow for effective comparisons between Canada and other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries.

Recommendation 2

That Employment and Social Development Canada ensure that Statistics Canada and the Labour Market Information Council deliver across all regions, through interactive platforms, up-to-date, and standardized labour market information that:

• is both accessible and engaging to youth;
• details and forecasts the skills and jobs which are in demand in their communities and nearby areas;
• clearly includes trade and apprenticeship information; and
• details the training, experience, education, competencies, and credentials that are required for different occupations.

Recommendation 3

That the whole of government be encouraged to expand the opportunities available for Canadians in experiential learning. And that Employment and Social Development Canada, in particular, work through the Horizontal Skills Review, with all departments to expand and continue to support experiential learning programs, and the Student Work Placement Program in particular, and expand its reach in Canada.

Recommendation 4

That Employment and Social Development Canada explore transforming the Canada Summer Jobs program into a broadly based youth jobs program for Canadian youth, which:

• supports jobs year-round;
• supports both full-time and part-time hours, that can last between eight and sixteen weeks;
• provides significantly more information to Members of Parliament, and more information about employers applying to the Canada Summer Jobs program;
• ensures a priority is placed on younger students, to help them get their first work experiences;
• institutes a trusted employer mechanism to enable multi-year funding;
• includes a priority for younger students (high-school aged);
• is available both to full-time and part-time students, and recent graduates; and
• is easy to navigate for employers and young people.

Recommendation 5

That the Public Service Commission work across all government Departments and Agencies to prioritize hiring to increase experiential learning opportunities for students. They should pay particular attention to increasing opportunities for youth from vulnerable populations and at-risk youth.

Recommendation 6

That Employment and Social Development Canada examine promising initiatives, such as the Dev Degree program and the Riipen platform, as part of the renewal of the Youth Employment Strategy in order to identify ways that the government can support and promote such initiatives to make them more accessible to Canadian youth.

Recommendation 7

That Employment and Social Development Canada and Finance Canada analyse and consider financial incentives for apprenticeship training that are easily accessible to employers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, such as wage subsidies and a tax credit for training investments.

Recommendation 8

That Employment and Social Development Canada work with all of government, provinces and territories, and all Canadian employers, to strongly prevent uncompensated internships in Canada. Compensation should take the form of remuneration or course credit in an educational institution but situations where only experience is offered as compensation should not be allowed.

Recommendation 9

That Employment and Social Development Canada and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada review and implement changes to all training programs and services they provide, and particularly those for youth, to ensure that entrepreneurial skills are a part of every program. These programs should promote entrepreneurial skills as a key employability asset in every occupation.

Recommendation 10

That Employment and Social Development Canada collect and promote success stories in experiential learning and collect best practices to aid the many Canadian companies who are not spending enough time or resources on providing training, and particularly experiential learning opportunities, for youth and new employees. This research on best practices should focus on demonstrated successes and innovative approaches to experiential learning.

Recommendation 11

That Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and Statistics Canada work together to collect and disseminate data on employer spending on employee training, experiential learning, employee retention and their correlation. ESDC should use this data to educate companies about the value of training in-house and providing adequate levels of ongoing employee training.

Recommendation 12

That Employment and Social Development Canada, in collaboration with other orders of government, the non-profit sector, and for-profit sector, ensure there are experiential learning pathways for non-employed youth and invest more resources for vulnerable youth not participating in the labour market.

Recommendation 13

That the Government of Canada continue to support initiatives to reduce drop-out rates and encourage students to pursue their studies, such as the Pathways to Education program.

Recommendation 14

That Employment and Social Development Canada, provinces, territories, employers, unions and educational institutions, as they work to promote and provide worthwhile experiential learning opportunities, continue to pay special attention to the unintended costs of participating in these programs and work together to help mitigate these costs (e.g. economically disadvantaged students who may not be able to afford travel to and from job sites).

Recommendation 15

That Employment and Social Development Canada, together with Indigenous Services Canada, set ambitious targets for all Indigenous students to have an opportunity for an apprenticeship, paid internship, co-op placement or meaningful experiential learning placement, and that these opportunities have a reconciliation and distinction-based approach.

Recommendation 16

That Employment and Social Development Canada work with the whole of government, all orders of government, employers, and non-profits, to prevent young Canadians with disabilities from being effectively dropped from the labour market because of their disability. This has immense costs, and government investments must be put in place to ensure these workers are better integrated into experiential learning opportunities, and our labour market, for their entire working lives.

Recommendation 17

That Employment and Social Development Canada work to ensure expanded and additional experiential learning opportunities for minority populations in Canada, including official language minority communities, racialized communities, youth-at-risk, Canadians with disabilities, Indigenous communities, newcomers to Canada, and economically disadvantaged youth. Specific attention must be paid to application processes to ensure youth from marginalized communities have barrier-free access to the various programs offered.