Alberta’s NDP government has announced a popular program to help the province’s students get employment would be back in 2016.
In a news conference at the University of Alberta Tuesday, Premier Rachel Notley and Jobs, Skills, Training and Labour Minister Lori Sigurdson announced the Summer Temporary Employment Program (STEP) would be reinstated in 2016.
It’s expected STEP will help employers by providing wage subsidies for more than 3,000 student positions starting between May and August.
“We are helping open doors for students to gain the skills and on-the-job experience they need to enter the workforce and be successful,” Notley said in a news release.
The reinstatement also comes with a change, for the first time, STEP will be available to small businesses, and it will also be open to participation from municipalities, not-for-profit groups, school boards and publicly-funded post-secondary institutions.
The province said there is $10 million allocated for STEP each year, starting in 2016-17.
