The Canada Student Financial Assistance Program
The Canada Student Financial Assistance Program (CSFA Program) provides Canada Student Grants and Loans to help students pay for their post-secondary education. It also offers repayment assistance to borrowers with financial difficulty.
Through the CSFA Program, the Government of Canada funds about 60% of a full-time student's financial need. The province or territory covers the remaining 40%.
The Program works in partnership with provinces and territories to deliver student aid. Funding is available to full- and part-time students that:
- are from low- and middle-income families
- have dependants
- have disabilities
Apprentices can also get help through Canada apprentice loans and apprenticeship grants.
To help students manage costs, ESDC extended temporary increases to Canada Student Grants and Loans for the 2026-27 school year. Approximately 571,000 Canadian students are expected to benefit from the 40% increase to non-repayable grants and 422,000 students could benefit from the weekly loan limit increase. Additionally, the Canada Student Loan Forgiveness benefit is now available for family doctors, nurses, early childhood educators, dentists, dental hygienists, pharmacists, midwives, teachers, social workers, personal support workers, physiotherapists, and psychologists in over 200 new rural and remote communities.
The Canada Apprentice Loans
The Canada Apprentice Loan is an initiative that helps apprentices complete their training in a designated Red Seal trade. With the Canada Apprentice Loan, apprentices can get up to $4,000 in interest-free loans per period of technical training. The money can be used to pay for tuition, tools, equipment and living expenses, to cover forgone wages or to help support their family.
Since inception, there are approximately 73,300 apprentices that have received Canada Apprentice Loans as of July 31, 2024.
2. Securing a first job:
The Canada Summer Jobs Program
The Canada Summer Jobs program (CSJ) provides youth (aged 15 to 30) with opportunities to develop and improve their skills through quality jobs over the summer with employers from not-for-profit organizations and the public sector, as well as private sector organizations with 50 or fewer full-time employees.
3. Gaining meaningful work experience:
The Student Work Placement Program
ESDC's Student Work Placement Program (SWPP) helps post-secondary students develop work-ready skills and employers to recruit and develop talent through paid work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities.
The SWPP supports two types of opportunities: including work placements and innovative work-integrated learning (I-WIL) experiences. I-WIL experiences focus specifically on providing post-secondary students with non-traditional and innovative work experiences, I-WIL opportunities including project-based activities, hackathons, boot camps, and micro-internships, among others.
The Program supported over 51,000 placements WIL opportunities with employers for post-secondary students in 2024-2025 - to prepare them for their careers with employers in sectors across the economy, through an investment of $197 million.
Since 2017, more than 300,000 WIL opportunities have been created with over 34,000 employers and 420 post-secondary institutions are participating in the Program. Amongst participating employers surveyed, and 3 out of 4 employers reported a willingness to hire the students following their work placement.
The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) Program
ESDC's YESS Program, which is part of the overarching YESS provides funding to organizations to deliver a range of activities that help youth overcome barriers to employment. It supports a flexible approach that offers tailored services to ensure individuals across the country can gain the skills and experience they need to find and keep good-quality jobs. Supports can include mentorship, coaching, training, wraparound services (for example, dependent care support, mental health counselling) and paid work placements.
The Canadian Apprenticeship Strategy
The Canadian Apprenticeship Strategy is a funding program that supports skilled trades workers and employers through measures that:
- promote the skilled trades as a good career option
- help them explore, prepare for, participate, and succeed in apprenticeship
- help employers and unions participate in apprenticeship
- encourage new tools and approaches to better prepare pre-apprentices, apprentices, and journeypersons for the jobs of tomorrow
The Future Skills Program
The Future Skills program was created to:
- Examine major trends that will have an impact on national and regional economies and workers.
- Identify emerging skills that are in demand now and into the future.
- Develop, test and evaluate innovative approaches to help Canadians gain the skills they need to adapt and succeed in the workforce;
- and share results and best practices with governments, private sector, labour, educational and training institutions, not-for-profit organizations, academics and subject matter experts to support broader adoption of innovative approaches across Canada.
Funded by the Government of Canada's Future Skills Program, the Future Skills Centre invests in programs that support youth facing barriers, including NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) youth, through mentorship, career exploration, and work-integrated learning. A minimum of 50% of funding to the Centre addresses the needs of underrepresented and disadvantaged groups, including up to 20% of the funding to address the needs of youth.
The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS)
The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) is a Government of Canada initiative led by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and delivered in partnership with multiple federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations. Together, these partners deliver funding programs to provide youth in Canada aged 15 to 30, especially those facing barriers to employment, with opportunities to receive employment supports, gain work experience and develop the skills needed to find and keep quality jobs. In addition to ESDC's CSJ and the YESS Program the following programs and are also part of the YESS.
Natural Resources Canada
The Science and Technology Internship Program (STIP) - Green Jobs provides funding to eligible employers across Canada to hire, train, and mentor youth (aged 15-30) in the natural resources sector (energy, forestry, mining and critical minerals, earth sciences, and clean technology) including in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
The Youth Employment and Skills Program (YESP), provides financial incentives to agricultural employers to create jobs for youth that provide an opportunity for these youth to gain valuable work experience and skill development opportunities, while also raising awareness of opportunities in the agriculture sector.
Canadian Heritage
Young Canada Works in Heritage program supports employers to create jobs for students and internships for graduates. These programs help youth acquire skills in the heritage, arts and cultural sector.
Indigenous Services Canada
The First Nations and Inuit Youth Employment Strategy supports initiatives that provide First Nations youth living on reserves and Inuit youth residing outside their land claim areas, aged 15 to 30, with career and work experience information, as well as opportunities to develop essential skills to achieve gainful and meaningful employment.
The National Research Council of Canada
The National Research Council of Canada's Industrial Research Assistance Program offers financial assistance to help innovative Canadian businesses hire young talent. Youth participants work on innovative projects and may participate in research, development and commercialization of new technologies. This program helps highly skilled young people transition into today's rapidly changing labour market.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Canada
The Indigenous Youth Housing Internship Program provides financial assistance to Indigenous governments, organizations and businesses in the housing sector to hire First Nations, Inuit and Métis youth aged 15 to 30 for paid internship positions. Through hands-on work experience, youth gain practical skills, industry knowledge, and professional development that prepare them for long-term careers in housing.
Global Affairs Canada
The International Youth Internship Program provides young Canadians and permanent residents between the ages of 18 and 30 with the opportunity to gain practical international work experience. By working with local organizations in more than 45 developing countries, participants strengthen their technical skills, cross-cultural adaptability and employability while contributing to sustainable development projects.
Parks Canada
The Youth Experience Employment Program provides work opportunities in the conservation, heritage, and tourism sectors. Those employed will develop the skills and experience needed to become more job-ready while protecting and showcasing natural and cultural heritage in Canada.
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
Digital Skills for Youth (DS4Y) connects underemployed post-secondary graduates with small businesses and not-for-profit organizations where they can gain meaningful work experience to help them transition to career-oriented employment. The program supports delivery organizations that have a strong network of small to medium-sized businesses (under 500 employees) and not-for-profit organizations that can create employment opportunities to help youth build the digital skills needed for the digital economy.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)
Through the Settlement Program, IRCC assists newcomers, including refugees, to overcome barriers through employment-related services, so they and their families can contribute to the civic, social, political and economic aspects of life in Canada.
