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Canada’s Career Starter program provides “bio-economy” employers with 50% funding of a youth’s salary to a maximum of $20,000 in wage subsidies for a three to nine-month job placement. The program goal is to help the employer adopt a diverse and inclusive work culture while satisfying their need for skilled labour.

Eligible youth must be 15-30 years, a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or immigrants plus can legally and able to work fulltime in Canada. Additionally, the youth must be facing one or more barriers to employment including but not limited to:

• not in education, employment or training for at least six months
• Disability
• Indigenous
• A recent immigrant and/or refugee
• A visible minority
• LGBTQ2 +
• Homeless or at risk of becoming homeless
• Living in a low-income household
• Residing in a rural or remote location
• Living with family care responsibilities
• Affected by substance use
• Currently in, coming out of, or who have been involved in the justice system
• In or aging out of care
• Living with low levels of literacy and numeracy

The definition of bio-economy employees includes farmers, processors, pulp and paper manufacturers, the forest sector, bio-based health products, cannabis, bio-energy producers, pet food makers, IT/health software developers, etc.  In addition, to a 6-to-9-month placement, employers must provide hired youth with a minimum of 2.5 hours/month of job coaching.

The program also offers internal job coaching such as skills training and onboarding tools for employers, including a diversity and inclusion HR policy template; and on-going monitoring to ensure program success.

Funding is extremely limited so apply quickly.