One Journey Initiative
The One Journey Initiative is a partnership between Labour and Advanced Education, industry and community. This program provides skill development and employment opportunities to unemployed or underemployed Nova Scotians where there is an identified industry labour shortage.
The partnership began in 1999, to address labour shortages in the tourism and hospitality sector. Since then the program has successfully completed over 60 projects in the following sectors: hospitality, flooring installation, automotive, continuing care, customer service, contact and support center, special needs assistant and trucking.
How does it work?
- Industry identifies the skill shortage and agrees to employ all eligible candidates who successfully complete the program;
- All stakeholders must be committed and active participants;
- Participation is voluntary;
- Income assistance clients must have a completed employability assessment and an action plan;
- Essential skills training is part of every project;
- Clients must have liability coverage while in job shadowing or training;
- Apprenticeship courses must be approved by government;
- The program relies on local labour market intelligence and provincial labour market information.
- Projects must be evaluated.
Project identification and development
All One Journey Initiatives begin with the identification of a skill shortage in a particular industry. Once a shortage is identified an industry steering committee, including representation from the Department of Labour and Advanced Education and Community Services, is formed.
The process for planning, developing and implementing each project is determined by the challenges and opportunities within each targeted industry sector. Each project begins with a needs assessment to assist in the establishment of program criteria. The steering committee meets once a month to give ongoing advice on the program.
The critical element and success factor of The One Journey Initiative is the job offer that is made by industry to participant upon entry into the program.
The One Journey Initiative is a responsive and 'hands-on' operational program for the employee and employer. As a result the program has a 90 % employee retention rate in hard to fill jobs.
For further information about The One Journey Initiative please see the The One Journey Initiative Guidelines (PDF, 918 KB)
OJI Itemized Budget Breakdown Template
Funding provided through the Canada-Nova Scotia Workforce Development Agreement
