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Barriers to Employment
While most street-involved youth want to work legitimately, they face significant
barriers:
- lack of job opportunities: Ottawa has been experiencing levels of unemployment
of 10% for the general population, much higher for this group who lack education,
training, job skills and job experience;
- low literacy: many of these youth have problems with reading and writing, which
may be one of the reasons why they left school, and which places them at further
disadvantage when looking for work;
- lack of appropriate, individualized education and training: the education and
training programs currently in existence are largely inappropriate to the needs of
street-involved youth. For example, the structure of the alternative school system makes
it largely inaccessible to many street-involved youth.
- lack of government support: despite the fact that governments at all levels
have indicated that youth unemployment is a high priority, their efforts in this area have
been limited primarily to employment support for youth who are still in school. Employment
and training programs to reach youth who have left the school system have actually been
cut back, even though these are the youth at the highest risk.
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