August 21, 2013
Embassy recently reported that DFATD might not be funding the International Youth Internship Program (IYIP) past March 2014. The program has run for the past 16 years, providing up to $12,000 in funding for young adults (age 19-30) to participate in 6-12 month work placements with NGOs in developing countries. IYIP was barely saved from the chopping block five years ago and a similar internship program run by DFAIT was cancelled in 2012. These training programs, while not without fault, have provided opportunities for young Canadians to gain valuable and important work experience abroad.
IYIP is one of the last routes for relatively inexperienced youth to access paid employment opportunities within the development field, an increasing rarity with the rise of unpaid internships and “voluntourism”. The end of this program would reduce the number of young Canadians on the global stage, particularly those who can’t (or whose parents can’t) afford to subsidize unpaid work experience. Cutting IYIP would be a shortsighted move with negative consequences for youth employment and Canada as a whole.
There is no good reason for the government to cut this fairly low-cost, efficient and effective program. The average annual operating cost is $6.5 million, a drop in the bucket of DFATD’s budget, with administrative and overhead expenses kept low through NGO partnerships. Since its inception in 1997, more than 7,000 youth have participated in the program.
In an Embassy article, Johannes Wheeldon, adjunct professor at Eastern Washington University, described how his IYIP internship taught him skills and lessons that led to his employment and Ph.D. dissertation topic. The Atlantic Council for International Cooperation (ACIC) praises the program for “increasing youth employability and enhancing career opportunities, while building the capacity of local partners in the South.” It has helped Canadian youth solve the recurring problem of not being able to gain paid work experience without work experience.
Cutting the IYIP would be another blow to Canadian youth who are at risk of chronic unemployment, in addition to being burdened by increasing debt loads from university. The national unemployment rate is currently 7.1%, but for youth it is 13.8%, with almost 398,000 young people currently looking for work. The ACIC has argued that IYIP provides young Canadians, “who would otherwise be on EI or underemployed, access to a meaningful work experience that is valued by future employers.”
IYIP is even more meaningful because it builds ties between Canada and developing countries that will continue to pay off in the future. IYIP helps give young Canadians an extended stay abroad and generates deeper cross-cultural understanding and technical skillsets than simple in-and-out voluntourism organizations. Many interns go on to have international careers and represent Canada at international organizations.
International focused fields such as development, trade and business are rapidly growing and many young Canadians will not be able to afford the associated travel and living costs it takes to participate in an unpaid internship abroad creating an increasingly privileged workforce and potentially limiting the diversity of Canada’s future international workers. IYIP has helped even the playing field and ensure that many young Canadians can compete internationally. Some other exchange and training programs still exist – including WUSC, CUSO and CESO- but a big door will be closing right when young Canadians need the opportunities more than ever. Canada can and should do better.