Young Canada Works: The wrap-up
Geneviève Wong
If your museum hired a youth participant this year under the Young Canada Works (YCW) program, you may be thinking about your final reporting requirements. While final reporting can sometimes feel overwhelming, the Canadian Museums Association (CMA) has produced this resource to help.
For both the YCW in Heritage Organizations (short-term jobs for students) and YCW at Building Careers in Heritage (graduate interns) programs your final reporting consists of an End of Work Term Report, an Evaluation Questionnaire and corresponding payroll records.
Additionally, if you hosted an internship you will also need to complete a Competency Development Plan as well as two Narrative Reports (one by the employer, one by the intern).
Tip: Your youth participant is a part of the reporting process. Be sure to reserve time within their last week of employment and have them complete their contributions to End of Work Term report, their Evaluation Questionnaire and their narrative report (applicable to graduate interns only).
End of Work Term Report
The End of Work Term Report has two components: one to be completed by you, the employer, and the other to be completed by the youth participant. We recommend that you and the participant complete your respective halves of the End of Work Term report during their last week. This way, they complete it before they go back to school and are still easily accessible.
Like the forms you’ve previously submitted (i.e. the Staffing Report), you can access the End of Work Term Report through the Young Canada Works website. When you log into your account, you’ll automatically be on a page called “My Dashboard.” Scroll down the dashboard to find your current jobs under “Active Projects.”
Click on your participant’s name to access their position overview page. This will show you which forms you and the participant need to complete. The link to your End of Work Term Report is right under the Staffing Report.
The End of Work Term Report functions as your final claim form. You will need to submit your participant’s complete work totals to help us calculate how much the position cost. Information will include the start and end dates, total hours worked, total gross salary paid, mandatory employer costs (i.e. CPP and EI), and more.
Tip: Did you receive funding from other sources? Make sure you remember to enter them under “Contribution from other sources — salary. Note: If you are a museum administered by a municipality, the funds they give you for your operating budget don’t count as another source, so only enter funds you got through specific grants or programs (e.g Canada Summer Jobs).
Tip: If you paid for extras like professional development, a uniform, etc. make sure you enter those amounts under “Contributions from employer — other than salary.”
Evaluation Questionnaire
Once you finish up your End of Work Term Report, return to the participant’s position overview page and scroll down to the Evaluation Questionnaire. Like the End of Work Term Report, the participant will also receive the option to submit an Evaluation Questionnaire. The participant will also need to complete a version. Rest assured, the Evaluation Questionnaire is confidential and is submitted directly to the department of Canadian Heritage. All the information collected helps the department make improvements to the program.
What to include in a narrative report?
Employer reports should include:
- A project description that introduces the reader to your project, including the tasks and responsibilities your intern took on during their time with you;
- A summary of the skills your intern developed or improved through their work;
- Project results: How did the project impact your museum? What has it done for your intern?;
- Difficulties encountered by your intern and solutions applied;
- Differences between your project plans and the actual internship;
- Creative approaches that added value to the intern’s work experience;
- Methods used to measure your project’s success;
- The intern’s debrief or exit interview;
- 2- 3 highlights from the project.
Intern reports should include:
- The intern's contact information;
- A project description: that summarizes their tasks and responsibilities;
- Project results: What impact did the project have on their employability? How did it benefit the museum?;
- What skills they developed or improved;
- Accomplishments achieved during the project;
- Difficulties encountered and solutions applied;
- Differences in the project plans and the actual internship;
- Status of employment:
- Has the intern been offered a job? What type of work and for how long?
- If they intern has not been offered a job, do they have any possible prospects? What is their employment plan?
Payroll records
Payroll records help CMA staff confirm your project’s actual costs. We determine the amount of funding to send in your final payment based on these records, and they need to include the following information:
- Your participant’s name;
- Employment start and end dates;
- Hourly wage;
- Total gross salary;
- Overtime pay;
- Statutory holiday pay;
- Vacation pay;
- Canada Pension Plan contributions (for participants over 18);
- Employment Insurance;
- Worker’s Compensation and/or Employer Health Taxes (if applicable).
This looks like a lot, but this information is usually included in records created with accounting software. Your organization’s finance representative will know what to look for. In the case that you don’t have a payroll program, you can email CMA staff for a template that allows you to record all the information needed. Just remember to sign it to confirm it’s as accurate as possible.
Tip: Don’t send Records of Employment or calculations made with the Canada Revenue Agency’s online calculators. Program regulations do not permit us to accept them.
Tip: Protect sensitive information. This includes removing your participant’s Social Insurance Number from any final reporting documents.
It’s extremely important to send us accurate payroll records. We ensure participants are paid properly and accidents are corrected (i.e. underpaid vacation). They also help us re-circulate unused funds so that other projects can get funding.
For those of you who hired a summer student through the YCW in Heritage Organizations program, once you’ve submitted the End of Work Term Report, Evaluation Questionnaire, and payroll records, you’re done.
For employers with interns hired through the Building Careers in Heritage stream, we have two more steps to go:
Competency Development Plan (CDP)
At the start of your internship, you will have filled out a CDP with your intern. You and your intern will have discussed the capabilities and qualities they wanted to improve, and which tasks in their project would help them achieve their goals. At the end of the internship, you’ll both revisit the plan and determine if their goals were reached. The CDP helps you ensure the experience is tailored to your intern and their professional goals, so make this part of your intern’s de-briefing.
Narrative reports
Two narrative reports, one completed by the employer and one completed by the intern. These are short but in-depth accounts of the project from your respective points of view. They help the CMA gain insight into what your organization has done to aid the intern’s professional development, and the impact of the intern’s work for the organization. These reports illustrate to Canadian Heritage how the program supports Canada’s emerging museum professionals. To help make writing easier, we’ve compiled an outline called What to include in a narrative report in this article.
We understand that final reporting requires some effort, but these report items, like the Evaluation Questionnaire, give important program recommendations to the Department of Canadian Heritage and, through the CDP and narrative reports, help prepare your intern for a successful future. For more assistance, get in touch with CMA’s dedicated YCW program staff. After all, we’re here to help! M