The largest skills gaps were in accommodation, food services, and construction. The smallest gaps were in scientific research and professional services. The report highlights the disparities in skills related to the trades industry within Canada. 

The lack of construction workers, carpenters, HVAC repair people, etc., has real economic effects. According to the CMHC, Canada will need close to 22 million homes by 2030 but will fall short of current building rates. A lack of skilled labour is a major reason for increased housing prices, inflation and a lack of affordability. This trend repeats in almost every industry that relies on tradespeople.

Universities today are fairly overrated. Stories of baristas with Master's degrees are so normalized, that I wouldn't be surprised if an art history degree were a minimum qualification to pour coffee. 

Black youth, like other young Canadians, have been pushed into academics as a surefire way to make a good income, but that is not the case anymore. If the demand for trades work is growing, that is an opportunity for Black youth to follow the money to an in-demand career. One group wants the nation to know that Black youth can fill the skills gap. 

What is the CEE?

The CEE (Careers, Education, Empowerment) Centre for Young Black Professionals is a Toronto-based non-profit organization contributing to the development of Canada by addressing economic and social barriers faced by Black youth aged 14 and over. Their mission is to create a society and economy where Black youth can achieve financial prosperity and a high quality of life for themselves and their families. 

Founded after the Summer of the Gun in 2005, the CEE collaborates with Black youth, employers, and the broader community in core focus areas of sector leadership, social enterprise and career training. Their career programming covers six identified labour market gaps – Technology, Entertainment, Social Services, Finance, Trades, and Hospitality – through holistic, person-centred, and culturally relevant approaches which aim to improve the careers, education, and empowerment of Black youth in Canada. The organization also provides alumni programs for graduates. And participants have access to mental health services from on-site therapists as part of trauma-informed approach to empowerment. 

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“A lot of young people are facing academic trauma or just lacking the self-esteem needed to succeed because they've been told otherwise. We have full-time psychotherapists on staff for a trauma-informed approach,” explained executive director Agapi Gessesse in an interview with ByBlacks.com. 

You may have seen CEE’s new advertising campaign, ‘Black Youth Can,’ plastered along the streets of Toronto. According to Gessesse, the campaign is meant to get people past the hiring bias and see Black youth for who they really are. Advert space in the city is expensive, but CEE partnered with the national marketing agency Publicis Groupe Canada, which donated half a million dollars in ad space with support from its clients. 

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The CEE also provides capacity-building to other Black organizations as a trustee, holding over $400,000 in grant funding for Black organizations like Black Urbanism TO and the Uzima Women's Group. As a trustee, the CEE assists Black nonprofits in receiving funding, building work relationships, and blueprinting their future.  

During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the CEE delivered 15 programs across five industries and engaged 188 young people. In that year, 160 students graduated and became CEE alumni. 

According to Gessesse, the CEE has grown from six employees to 50 in just five years. The organization expanded its program department by adding more program and social support staff and hiring a full-time on-site psychotherapist.

This organization's massive growth is buoyed by its dedicated group of donors. As a nonprofit, CEE is funded through donations from government, businesses, and individuals. 

Despite this success in attracting funding and expanding its staff, CEE has faced some tough challenges along the way.

Growing Pains

Five years ago, the organization scrapped its General Trades Program after only being able to place 56% of the youth who participated.

Alumni of the General Trades Program reported being hired but then not receiving calls to work. They also reported experiencing various workplace microaggressions. “Employers stopped calling that young person, or they're not being called onto the work sites as frequently as they were when we were involved,” said Gessesse. 

Once the CEE left youth alone with these companies, they went directly back to their old practices of biases. This is an ongoing problem for the Black community - performative politics by many companies.

This was a learning moment for the organization; not all partners are the right partners. 

According to Gessesse, employment rates post-graduation change depending on programming. CEE constantly evaluates the efficacy of programming and changes its approach based on what actually gets Black youth into a career. 

But for many youth, the CEE program was not all about getting a job. For some, it was a chance to grow as individuals and entrepreneurs. 

“We're focused on how you're going to be able to generate an income for yourself and your family,” says Gessesse. “So it's not prescriptive. We're not saying, oh, you now need to go work a nine to five, and success looks like that for us. You can become a freelancer; you can become an entrepreneur. But we aim to provide you with a skill that can't be taken away from you. Our goal is to know how you will generate income for yourself. 

If you want to start your own business, we'll support you. We have partners who can do that. For instance, how do you register your business? What's an HST number? When do you need it? How do you write an invoice? And all of the things in between?  We’re here to walk it out with a young person to the very end. We work with our young people actively two years after they've graduated, and actively means every two weeks, someone's reaching out to you, hey, how are you doing?” 

Grace Anne Taylor attended the CEE’s styling program and now works for herself as a makeup artist with different groups in the entertainment industry.

“CEE gave me a network where I could reach out to people, and people would reach out to me about opportunities,” said Grace. “I was doing a lot of my own freelance work, but I wanted the education behind it.” 

For youth like Grace, the CEE has capably delivered on its goal to educate Black youth, but for those looking for employment outcomes, some of them continue to face barriers, including anti-Black hiring biases. 

In 2023, 103 young people entered the program; 83 of them graduated and 42 of them were successfully placed in jobs/apprenticeships. Since then, CEE has been able to place 61 members of that cohort in jobs. Gessesse says collaborating with employers is a work in progress, as many are still developing their own racial equity strategies and standards. It’s also a matter of lining up the timing of young people who are available to work with the timing of an employer who has jobs available for them. 

Some industries have shown to be more successful, particularly the entertainment industry.  

The E-Trades program (which stands for entertainment trades) prepares Black youth for a career in the entertainment trades industry. This includes set carpentry, stage lighting, etc. Of the 15 participants throughout the 2022/23 cohort, all but four completed work placement. Gessesse says unions are the key to this program’s 96% success rate. 

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Unions Make the Difference

To help youth get their foot in the door within an industry, the CEE works with industry unions to help influence workplaces to change the culture of nepotism and discrimination in many organizations. Unions in Canada also face their own issues of anti-Black racism, so the CEE carefully chooses who they work with. 

“We spend a lot of time assessing who we partner with for ourselves before we ever put a young person in someone's work environment,” Gessesse explained. “And so we said, okay, well, let's look at unions that are open to this.”

While the CEE works with unions, and other hiring partners in most of its programs, it's the dedication of union members to fighting anti-Black racism that leads to successful placement programs. 

Gessesse says two film unions, IATSE and NABET700 needed carpenters, electricians, and set designers, and they were very open to co-creating something with CEE. And while other groups were open to co-creating, these unions genuinely embraced the CEE and its participants. 

NABET700 began working with the CEE through the City of Toronto TO Screen Industry Pathways program. Together, NABET and the CEE have delivered costume styling and entertainment trades programs to four different cohorts, even after a slow start due to the pandemic. Bernice Manalo, Training Coordinator at NABET700 knows what it takes to succeed in the industry, and wants to share that wisdom with Black youth.

“Removing barriers to entry is imperative, but removing barriers to longevity is just as crucial.” She echoes Gessesse’s remarks as both women have seen that even when Black youth get a job, staying in it is just as, if not, harder. So how does the partnership with NABET700 help reduce barriers to entry and longevity. 

In addition to reducing financial costs and fees to enter programming and union activities, the collaboration also saves spots in its job placement program for equity-deserving groups, including Black youth and women. Of its 25 placement spots, NABET saves 15 for BIPOC applicants. 

The CEE hopes to find more successful partnerships like this. The organization is currently reviewing five of its programs, and part of its evaluation is assessing the commitment of its employment partners.  

“Everyone needs to be invested in equity work. That means confronting hard truths about ourselves,” Manalo explained.

Gessesse says that one of those hard truths is that diversity, equity, and inclusion is sometimes considered a “nuisance” instead of a necessity. 

“We are very talented and we can contribute. And it's proven that if you give someone an opportunity who hasn't necessarily had an opportunity, we will seize it. Our young people seize the moment and are some of the most productive employees. So, if you want to pass that up, that's fine. We're going to knock on doors that open. And if you want to keep your door closed, then that will be to the detriment of your industry and not necessarily our community because plenty of allies are willing to work with us,” says Gessesse.