30,000 students get academic support & leadership training through IDRF's Get Job Ready program

RBC executive Neil McLaughlin to attend this year's final Student Leadership Conference on May 27

TORONTO, May 23, 2019 /CNW/ - IDRF (International Development and Relief Foundation) today announced that more than 30,000 young Canadians have graduated from its Get Job Ready program: Licenced to Learn (L2L).

Get Job Ready is an IDRF initiative dedicated to helping young Canadians overcome the barriers they face in getting academic support and gaining access to the labour market, and helping them achieve their career goals. This is particularly relevant today in light of the changing skill sets needed to find meaningful employment in a high-tech world, cuts to education funding, and high levels of under-employment among Canadian youth.

Over the past 17 years, IDRF has provided more than 30,000 Canadian students with academic support and leadership training through its Licensed to Learn (L2L) Peer-Tutoring and Leadership Program.  In addition, over the past year more than 5,000 of these students have participated in the L2L program as either Tutors or Peers with funding provided by the RBC Future Launch Initiative. These students have cumulatively dedicated over 16,000 hours to facilitating peer-tutoring sessions with peers.

The final event of this school year will take place on May 27 when IDRF hosts its sixth Student Leadership Conference in collaboration with local school boards. More than 130 students from five schools will participate in the conference including Loretto Abbey Secondary School, Notre Dame High School, Brebeuf College, St Mary Academy, and Holy Angels School.

This event will bring together student leaders to take part in the full-day leadership conference. Students will participate in interactive and activity driven workshops focused on leadership styles, effective communication, recognition of leadership assets/skills, confidence building, and mental health. Workshops will be led by facilitators with training and experience in the given domains; this includes young professionals affiliated with IDRF's Get Job Ready Program, the component of IDRF's programming targeting young Canadians.

"The students attending the conference are L2L Tutors and have spent the last year helping at-risk students in their school", says Winston Kassim,  C.M., Chair of IDRF Global Monitoring. "Through the program, over 1,600 students received free academic support led by L2L Tutors. For many of the students tutored, this support would otherwise be inaccessible due to financial barriers".

Through its RBC Future Launch program, for the past two years Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has been a major sponsor of IDRF's Job Ready program, which includes L2L.  RBC Future Launch is a 10-year, $500-million initiative to help young people gain access and opportunity to the skills, job experience and career networks needed for the future world of work.

On behalf of RBC, Neil McLaughlin, the bank's Group Head of Personal & Commercial Banking, will attend the Student Leadership Conference to hear first-hand from young Canadians and to offer advice. Many of the students are at a crucial stage, exploring their career interests and will strongly benefit from the opportunity to obtain advice and guidance from leaders and mentors.

Find out more about IDRF's programs for youth and young Canadians at https://idrf.com/canadian-programs/. 

About the Licensed to Learn Peer-Tutoring and Leadership Program

IDRF's school-based program Licensed to Learn (L2L) is an academic support program that trains high achieving students to become certificated tutors across Canada. Once trained, those students provide free tutoring to their peers struggling academically. By dedicating a minimum of 10 hours of peer-tutoring with an at-risk student, the tutors not only provide academic support, but they also develop essential leadership skills and gain valuable experience to support their transition to the workforce and post-secondary education. The peers they support receive mentorship to facilitate their development and future academic and professional success. In partnership with RBC's Future Launch, L2L program is now operational at over 100 schools across six school boards. By the end of this school year (June 2019), L2L will have impacted over 30,000 students since 2002 through academic and social support.

About IDRF

IDRF (International Development and Relief Foundation) is a Canadian registered charitable organization dedicated to empowering the disadvantaged people of the world. Founded in 1984, IDRF has implemented relief and development projects in Canada and across territories in South and Southeast Asia, Africa, the Americas, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. IDRF seeks to provide the most vulnerable communities with the means to create lives of dignity, equality and sustainability, towards a more just world. Find out more about IDRF at IDRF.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

SOURCE International Development and Relief Foundation

Media are invited to attend the Student Leadership Conference, and/or to request interviews, by contacting: Nabil Ali (Director of Programs, IDRF), 416.497.0818, ext. 230, [email protected] Or Penny Fancy (Director of Resource Development, IDRF), 416.497.0818 Ext 216, [email protected]