PIEJ — Integrated Youth Employment Project

The PIEJ supports young people aged 16 to 30 who face barriers to employment or who live with a disability. The goal is to develop their skills, boost their confidence, and facilitate their access to stable employment.

The problem it addresses

Qualified, motivated young people, yet persistently kept out of the job market. The obstacles are repeated from one province to another: lack of professional network, difficulty in recognizing foreign diplomas, uneven mastery of the working language, limited familiarity with the digital tools required for hiring, and the implicit codes of a job market that cannot be learned anywhere.

How the project works

The PIEJ is deployed in successive cohorts. Each participant benefits from individual support combined with group programming: training, workshops, mentoring and networking with employers.

The project also provides the necessary resources for participation—laptop, phone plan, participation allowance. A young person who has to choose between looking for a job and paying for transportation won't look for a job; the program is designed to remove this obstacle.

The program features figures from the communities concerned — a writer, a psychologist, representatives of the Armed Forces — so that participants see paths that resemble their own rather than abstract models.

Three provinces, three realities

The project is being carried out in Montreal, Moncton, and Toronto, with the Afro-Canadian Community Cultural Centre of New Brunswick and the Haitian Association of Toronto as delivery organizations. Each region has its own specific conditions: labour market, density of community networks, status of French, and employer profiles. Support is tailored accordingly rather than applied uniformly.

A network that is being built

Beyond job placements, the PIEJ constitutes a network of young graduates in three provinces. Several former participants now act as mentors to subsequent cohorts, making the project a chain rather than a succession of unrelated programs.

Fourth cohort — inscriptions

A six-month course in two stages.

Step 1 — Training, 12 weeks
From September 7 to November 28, 2026. The participant receives 1,500 $ per month for the entire duration of the training.

Step 2 — Workplace Internship, 12 weeks
From November 30, 2026 to February 27, 2027, with an employer of their choice, paid the minimum wage.

Training location
Premises of the Socio-economic Summit for Youth Development in Communities, 3332 Jarry Street East, Montreal (Quebec).

Eligibility requirements
Be between 16 and 30 years old inclusive, and:

• be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or protected person as defined by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act;
• be legally authorized to work in Canada;
• to have the right to work in accordance with applicable provincial or territorial laws and regulations.

Register

Call the 514 532-0484, write to info@lakay.quebec or go through our Contact page. Employers and organizations wishing to host an intern or discuss a partnership can contact us using the same contact details.