TORONTO, Jan. 30,
2025 /CNW/ - Junior Achievement Canada (JA
Canada) together with Coke Canada Bottling and The
Coca-Cola Company are proud to announce a new partnership
offering skills, experiences, and support to help Canadian youth
overcome barriers to employment. In May
2024, Statistics Canada reported an approximate 30 per cent
increase in unemployability rate among youth ages 15-24, a reality
attributed to increased competition for less jobs and lack of
experience. The initial findings from the RBC Young People and
Economic Inclusion Longitudinal Study highlight the shortage of
work-integrated learning opportunities for youth, which would
inherently allow them to integrate in the workforce more
successfully.
Recent studies, highlighted by The Conversation, show that
mentorship has the potential to improving social and economic
outcomes for underserved youth. Moreover, a study by Être,
indicates mentorship boosts confidence among teenage girls. Through
this new partnership, Coke Canada Bottling employees will engage in
career mentorship sessions with youth aged 14 and up across the
country, sharing their personal knowledge about what it takes to
succeed in today's rapidly evolving job market.
These sessions will take place through JA's World of
Choices events and a new program, called Pouring Potential:
A JA Job Shadow Experience at Coke Canada, being piloted at
select Coke Canada facilities and designed to provide opportunities
for their manufacturing, distribution, merchandising, and warehouse
employees to participate.
World of Choices, JA Canada's flagship work readiness
program, is an interactive initiative designed to annually equip
over 7500 high school students, with essential skills and knowledge
to prepare them for future career success. Over 30 per cent of
participants come from underrepresented and underserved
communities.
Pouring Potential: A JA Job Shadow Experience at Coke
Canada offers youth with a unique job shadowing experience.
These custom-designed events at select local Coke Canada facilities
offer students an immersive opportunity to gain insights into the
industry, develop career skills, and learn directly from
professionals in the field.
Both programs have been designed to shape the next generation's
career journeys, helping them realize their full potential and
contribute to making a positive impact in local communities.
Quotes from Leadership
"We are thrilled to partner with Coke Canada to support the
next generation of Canadian leaders," said Scott Hillier CEO of
JA Canada. "Together, we are creating meaningful opportunities
that empower our young people to develop the skills they need to
thrive in their careers, aiding to a stronger and more resilient
workforce."
"We have a role to play in helping Canada's youth be better enabled to gain
employment through career mentorship, skill building, and work
readiness. This new partnership allows our employees to share their
unique work experiences and the skills necessary for their career
success. We are excited to see this partnership come to life with
our teams coast-to-coast." – Todd
Parsons, CEO, Coke Canada Bottling
About JA Canada
JA Canada is the country's largest youth business education
organization, dedicated to inspiring and preparing youth to succeed
in a global economy. Through hands-on programs, JA empowers
students to build entrepreneurial skills, financial literacy, and
career readiness. www.jacanada.org
About Coke Canada Bottling Limited
Coke Canada Bottling is an independent, family-owned business,
with more than 6,000 diverse employees coast-to-coast. As
Canada's Local Bottler, the
company operates in every province through more than 50 sales and
distribution centres and five manufacturing facilities. Coke Canada
Bottling proudly makes, distributes, merchandises, and sells the
most loved beverages Canadians enjoy, including:
Coca-Cola®, Diet Coke®, Coca-Cola®
Zero Sugar, Sprite®, Fanta®,
Barq's®, Fuze® Iced Tea,
POWERADE®, DASANI®, vitaminwater®,
and partner brands Canada Dry®, Monster
Energy®, and A&W®. The Coke Canada
Bottling family is a team determined to create a better future and
deliver optimism by bringing sustainable value for our employees,
customers, and consumers, growing our business responsibly, and
making a positive difference in the communities where we operate.
Visit www.CokeCanada.com to learn more.
About The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is a total beverage company
with products sold in more than 200 countries and territories. Our
company's purpose is to refresh the world and make a difference. We
sell multiple billion-dollar brands across several beverage
categories worldwide. Our portfolio of sparkling soft drink brands
includes Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta. Our water, sports, coffee and
tea brands include Dasani, smartwater, vitaminwater, Topo Chico, BODYARMOR, Powerade, Costa,
Georgia, Gold Peak and Ayataka.
Our juice, value-added dairy and plant-based beverage brands
include Minute Maid, Simply, innocent, Del
Valle, fairlife and AdeS. We're constantly transforming our
portfolio, from reducing sugar in our drinks to bringing innovative
new products to market. We seek to positively impact people's
lives, communities and the planet through water replenishment,
packaging recycling, sustainable sourcing practices and carbon
emissions reductions across our value chain. Together with
our bottling partners, we employ more than 700,000 people, helping
bring economic opportunity to local communities worldwide. Learn
more at www.coca-colacompany.com and follow us on Instagram,
Facebook and LinkedIn.
SOURCE JA Canada
