About the program
Languages at Work is a summer employment program for youth 18 to 30 years of age designed to provide Canadian students with practical summer job experience, a chance to practice and improve their second official language skills (either French or English), and the opportunity to discover a new region of the country.
Managed by La Fédération de la jeunesse canadienne-française, Languages at Work is a joint initiative of the Explore program and Young Canada Works in Both Official Languages.
Designed for Explore participants, Languages at Work offers them unique opportunities to continue learning their second language in a professional context.
Following the completion of the Explore program, the participant could have the opportunity to stay in their host region for job placements ranging from 3 to 8 weeks!
Program objectives
- Provide meaningful summer employment opportunities to Explore participants;
- Provide participants with the opportunity to increase their knowledge and appreciation of their second language while discovering a new region of the country.
Eligibility
Students
- From 16 to 30 years old (high school students aged 16 to 17 can apply for the program with a written permission from their parents);
- Have Canadian citizenship or landed immigrant status;
- Be an Explore participant;
- Available to work after the Explore program session;
- Interested in working in your second language.
Employers
- Must offer a meaningful work experience;
- Must hire a young student from another part of Canada who is already in the Explore program;
- Must offer guidance and orientation;
- For placements of six to eight weeks, must be able to pay the student’s salary and the wage increase before receiving the YCW contribution.
What the program offers
Students
- If you bought a return ticket for the end of the Explore program, we will refund the cost of the change of date and the price difference between the old and the new plane / bus / train ticket. The return ticket is not paid in full.
- Opportunity to stay in your Explore program host city.
- Opportunity to improve your second language.
- Competitive salary: You will be paid the provincial minimum wage and in some cases, you may also be entitled to receive an additional salary increase of $1.00, and/or an additional salary indexation of $1.35 per hour.
Employer
- For placements of six to eight weeks, Languages at Work contributes 60% of the student’s salary, including benefits;
- Certain students return! Many students in Languages at Work are open-minded, adventurous youth who want to travel. Working with them on a short-term basis is a lowrisk way to find star seasonal employees to hire each summer (at your expense).
- Reimbursement of 100% of the wage increase, including benefits;
- Learn about a different region of Canada. Our candidates are from all over Canada, and bring diverse perspectives and experience to the workplace.
Employment criteria
- Six to eight weeks of work (for the spring Explore program) or three weeks of work (for the summer Explore program) – or an equivalent number of hours;Salary = the province’s minimum wage plus $1/hr;
- Wage increase: the employer must add $1.35/hr to the salary; this expense will be reimbursed at 100% by the delivery organization;
- A minimum of 35 hours of work per week (over 35 hours, or in the case of a contract extension with the student, the employee’s salary must be covered by the employer).