YES Employment celebrates another season of Jobs for Youth program

THUNDER BAY -- A program that sees hundreds of youth hired every year is celebrating another season.

For more than a decade YES Employment Services have been pairing up students 15 to 18-years-old with fully-subsidized jobs in Thunder Bay in its Jobs for Youth program.

This year with more than 260 students from under-serviced neighbourhoods in summer jobs, the service celebrated Thursday afternoon with a luncheon at Superior CVI.

Workshop facilitator Anita Muggeridge said from public to private sectors, large and small, students are all over Thunder Bay working and learning new skills.

"We had them across the board with different employers," she said.

Seventeen-year-old Nathan Thompson said he was nervous when he first started the program. But he quickly use the skills he learned in order to land a job at Pinewood Court helping set up recreational activities.

"When you really get here you enjoy what they teach you," he said. "It was fun."

Aspiring pediatrician is hoping to use the skills she learned with the Thunder Bay Chill helping out with youth camps for her bedside manner one day. From coaching to cleaning up, it all helps.

"I feel those skills are applicable in real life too," she said.