Story co-written by Angad Arora, Erin Cartan, Bo Aganaba, and Alison Homer
Youth in Whitehorse and across the Yukon are playing a growing role in shaping employment opportunities in their communities. Through BYTE Empowering Youth and the Territorial Youth Collective, young people are helping set priorities, guide community activities, and influence decisions about youth employment. Their experiences and ideas are shaping how programs are designed and how communities respond to local employment challenges.
As one youth leader reflected, “It feels good when adults actually ask us what we think before making decisions.”
Many Yukon youth face barriers that can make it difficult to explore career paths and prepare for employment. Young people living in rural and remote communities often have limited access to employers, work experience opportunities, and career development supports. Some travel to Whitehorse to access internships, summer jobs, or training opportunities. Others encounter hiring processes that assume previous work experience or work schedules that can be difficult to balance with school and family responsibilities. Community leaders also heard that some youth had never met a youth entrepreneur or been exposed to local career pathways that felt relevant to their lives.
Listening to youth has influenced how the work is delivered. During community outreach, local partners learned that greater exposure to youth entrepreneurs and local role models could help young people better understand their options. This led to the inclusion of youth-led business booths and youth-centred programming that highlighted real examples of local career pathways.
Many of the priorities identified by youth align with Canada's Quality of Life Framework, including social connections, future opportunities, and a sense of belonging. Youth consistently emphasized the importance of being heard, building relationships, and seeing possibilities for their future.
Youth perspectives also help shape priorities through the Helping Youth Prepare for Employment (HYPE) leadership team, where young people participate alongside representatives from government, business, and community organizations. Community leaders report that making space for youth voices has strengthened engagement, inclusion, and understanding among partners.
One of the clearest examples of this work in action was the HYPE Up Your Career event. More than 700 people attended, including youth, employers, educators, government departments, First Nations, and community organizations. Forty-two employers and organizations hosted booths, creating opportunities for young people to learn about jobs, training, education, and local resources. The event strengthened relationships between employers and organizations while increasing awareness of opportunities available to youth across the territory. Interest was strong enough that both partners and participants expressed interest in making it an annual event.
Youth are already seeing benefits from their involvement in HYPE. Participants report building communication skills, leadership abilities, and confidence through their involvement. The team also connects youth with community resources and supports when they need them. Several youth involved in HYPE secured full-time summer employment, while others are continuing on to university studies. Some members are exploring opportunities to attend a youth conference in Toronto, expanding their networks and leadership experience beyond Yukon.
The community is also preparing employers to better support young workers. Through the Employing Youth Effectively workshop, employers learn practical approaches to recruiting, onboarding, supervising, and retaining youth. Four employers and organizations recently participated in train-the-trainer sessions and will begin delivering the workshops across Yukon starting in August 2026.
Youth leadership remains central to the initiative. Seven youth are actively involved in shaping and implementing the work through the HYPE team. One youth identifies as Indigenous and five identify as people of colour. Community engagement activities in Whitehorse and Old Crow are also informing employment priorities and future community action plans. Youth Accountability Gatherings continue to create opportunities for young people to share their experiences and influence decisions affecting their communities.
The work has created meaningful opportunities for youth in rural and remote communities. All eight youth who participated in Employment Week activities in Old Crow were Indigenous and living in a remote community. One youth from Old Crow has since joined the youth advisory team and will continue contributing to the work.
Youth voices in Old Crow are already shaping future activities. Youth expressed interest in job-shadowing opportunities, leading local partners to explore connections between the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation and regional organizations to help make those opportunities possible. Youth also identified a desire for access to a Muay Thai coach, prompting efforts to connect the community with potential funding opportunities.
Strong partnerships with Yukon First Nations, schools, employers, and community organizations have helped ensure activities remain community-led and locally relevant. A dedicated project coordinator has provided consistent leadership and relationship-building across the territory. Partners also found that youth respond particularly well when employment programming combines practical skills development with outdoor and on-the-land learning opportunities.
Community leaders also drew on support from Tamarack through Pathways for Youth Employment coaching calls, online resources, and opportunities to connect with communities across Canada. These learning opportunities helped strengthen local approaches to youth leadership, community engagement, and systems change. Flexible funding also allowed activities to evolve in response to priorities identified by youth and community partners.
Community partners learned that maintaining engagement requires ongoing effort. Employer participation depends on relationship-building, particularly when organizations are involved in multiple employment initiatives. Youth leadership groups also experience regular turnover as young people graduate, move into employment, or pursue new opportunities. These experiences reinforced the importance of recruitment, succession planning, and creating multiple ways for people to participate.
The influence of this work reaches beyond individual events and activities. Youth Accountability Gatherings are helping build a culture where young people contribute to decisions affecting their communities. Relationships formed through HYPE Up Your Career are creating stronger connections between employers, organizations, and youth. The train-the-trainer model is preparing local organizations to share youth-friendly employment practices more widely across Yukon.
Next steps include recruiting youth leaders in Old Crow and Ross River, strengthening relationships with employers, expanding delivery of the Employing Youth Effectively workshop, and continuing to refine employment readiness programming based on youth feedback.
Youth voices will remain at the centre of this work as communities across Yukon continue building employment pathways shaped by local realities and the priorities of young people.
This project is funded by the Government of Canada's Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program.
View the Guide to Meaningfully Engaging Youth in Your Community
View the Guide for Navigating the Future of Work for Youth and Employers
Check out the DEVlab Report - Building Bridges: Connecting Youth Skills to the Future of Work
View the Building Economic Resilience: Skills Development in Indigenous and Northern Communities
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