By Kendall Worth!
Today’s BLOG is a follow-up to my January BLOG in which I made the case for a major reform of the Career Seek Program.
To recap: the Career Seek Program is a provincial employment preparation program in Nova Scotia through which eligible Income Assistance recipients can secure permission to continue receiving IA benefits while they attend university or a post-secondary education program of more than two years.
My criticism of the program back in January focused upon some very specific limitations:
· firstly,
it is only available for students enrolled in programs that are over two years
long. This means that a broad range of shorter skill-development courses as
well as most Community College diploma programs do not qualify under Career
Seek criteria;
· secondly,
while the program enables IA recipients to continue receiving benefits while
studying, this is itself of limited use, since these benefits barely cover the
costs of day-to-day living, never mind the added costs of university tuition, books,
and more; and
· thirdly,
the assessment criteria for people to qualify for the Career Seek program are
not clear, so people are hesitant to apply, or are rejected when they do apply -
for reasons that are not at all clear.
Since I posted the BLOG in January, I have had conversations with people in my community that re-inforced these concerns. So today, I will share some of their follow-up comments and suggestions.
We Should Not Overstate the Impact of Such Programs: The idea of getting people off of Income Assistance through education and employment programs like Career Seek is a favoured strategy of many people, especially politicians. But we need to be honest: when you look at the population of people on Income Assistance in Nova Scotia, I suspect that less than one in three individuals would be a good fit for such a program. Indeed, when I discussed this issue with someone who is a volunteer at one of our local soup-kitchens, she thought the likely participation rate would be less than 5% (in other words 1 person in 20) of those people she sees on a daily basis lining up at the soup-kitchen. People’s lives, complicated health issues and other factors make it difficult for the vast majority of IA recipients to benefit from such programs.
The Criteria for Career Seek need to be clarified: The people I spoke to suggest that the requirements and assessment process for the Career Seek program needs to be clarified and adapted. The current process and criteria (see this Link) is just not adequate or sufficiently flexible.
Expand the Definition of “Eligible” Educational Programs: In particular, Career Seek needs to open its program to those interested in community college courses. Many NSCC programs are more oriented to the job market than are university courses, and in today’s market, many good paying jobs do not require university degrees. People in my community feel that many NSCC diploma and certificate courses would provide excellent opportunities for employment at lower costs and in shorter times than University programs.
Applicants for the Career Seek Program require Employment Support Workers who are advocates not just gate-keepers. In my recent BLOG, I profiled Sasha whose application to Career Seek was rejected because she was unable to articulate to her Employment Support Worker a clearly defined plan for education and employment to be pursued with support from the Career Seek Program. (Sasha was not the first person to complain to me about such an experience.) I would therefore recommend that Employment Support Workers be provided with the tools necessary (the mandate, skills and manuals) to support IA recipients to formulate such a personalized development plan, - not just cut them off when they do not bring a fully formulated career plan to the application process.
Accommodating those with Learning Disabilities: It is important to note that many people living on Income Assistance have found ourselves in this situation because we live with various learning disabilities. I have written about my own personal experience in this regard, in past articles here and here. For many of us, it has been years – if not decades – since we have been in a formal classroom. For that reason, it is important to identify possible accommodations for such individuals, so that they can participate and succeed in their return to an educational program.
I
appreciate that there can be major challenges involved in accommodating students
with disabilities in such a program. I have written extensively about the experience
of Carrie Ann Bugden, who struggled to make it work as a disabled student in a
University program here in Halifax. There are many similar stories to be told,
as we try to find ways to avoid a repetition of Carrie Ann’s story in which she
sadly had to return home to Newfoundland without finishing her University
program due to her inability to get her disability related needs met in Nova
Scotia. (I am planning to write a further BLOG post about this, so stay tuned.)
In closing, one of the First Voices I spoke with recently reminded me of an earlier BLOG I had written where Hailie Tattrie spoke about the nature of Generational Poverty and how difficult it is for young people who come from disadvantaged families to break out of poverty. Education is one of the few opportunities such individuals have to help them break the chains of generational poverty. It would be helpful if the Career Seek program was specifically promoted amongst such young people, soon after they leave high school and before they move to far away from formal education. Prioritising this group of potential students early on could make a BIG difference in people’s lives.
In this day and age, the Career Seek program can play a BIG role in improving people’s lives. But to be truly effective, the design and delivery of Career Seek needs to change in many different ways. I have hopefully provided some useful suggestions as to what this change should look like.
Kendall Worth is an award-winning anti-poverty activist who lives with disabilities and tries to make ends meet on income assistance.
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