Marcos Pineda's early career track had a rocky start. He had trained at a private college to be a physiotherapy assistant, but after a practicum that didn't go very well, he wasn't sure if it was the career for him.

"I'd been through it all before, but nothing really worked out," says Pineda, a 29-year-old who lives in the downtown core. "I went through a period where I made a lot of bad decisions."

After hearing about Toronto's PAYE (Partnership to Advance Youth Employment) program, Pineda enrolled in the intensive six-to-eight-week program that ends with job interviews with participating employers and, hopefully, a job offer. With two sessions a week with a job coach, Pineda built up not only his resume and job-interview skills, but his sense of what he wanted to do for a living. After several matches with possible employers, Pineda interviewed with CIBC and in September 2010, he started working at a downtown branch not far from his home.

"I went into the interview confident with what I had to offer," says Pineda. "It's been great, though it's a little daunting to be part of a team that looks after people's money."

Piloted in Lawrence Heights, a neighbourhood targeted by the city as one needing special attention, PAYE launched in 2007. It was a response to the fact that those aged between 15 and 24 face an unemployment rate almost three times higher than adults face. Employers are generally nervous about taking chances with people too young to have much of an employment track record. Aimed at youth who may have good skills but not the networks or the job-finding savvy that will get them offers, the program works through almost 40 community agencies to find opportunities for them.

Since PAYE has rolled out to other priority neighbourhoods and to youth all over the city, the program has provided 1,400 job interviews to more than 1,000 young people, resulting in 250 job offers, says program manager Karen Wilson. Though participants describe the training and employer match-making as crucial to getting ahead -- the retention rate so far has been about 80 percent -- the program has struggled to attract a broad spectrum of employers who can put to good use all the skills.

"We always have some young people at the end of the session who hadn't found a suitable employer," says Wilson. "We always have more young people looking for work than we have employers."

Major financial services enterprises like CIBC, Scotiabank, BMO, Ernst & Young, and Deloitte and Touche are well-represented but smaller companies in other industries have been shyer about taking part.

"Sometimes I worry that working for a big bank is not for everybody," says Jennifer Tory, RBC's regional president for the Greater Toronto Region and one of the program's most vocal boosters. "It would be great to see more manufacturing and other industries, so the participants have more choice."

Smaller companies, which often have only single positions available at a time, are often reluctant to participate in job-fair style events that will land them hundreds of prospects, even if they are all "job ready." So while the participants learn to network their way to employment, program staff and participating employers have been networking among themselves to reach out to potential employers in various industries.

"As we've gone along, we've learned how to communicate with the business community," says Wilson. "Cold calling doesn't work. We've tried to make it very simple. Employers can just give us a job, tell us what they're looking for and we'll try to find the right candidates for them."

Employers like Tridel, Toronto's largest condo builder, have helped broaden the industry mix, which was a bonus for Andrew Rapley. With a degree in psychology and marketing, he figured he'd be working in healthcare, not real estate. Rapley finished the PAYE program in November 2010 and interviewed for a customer service position at Tridel immediately after.

"After the interview, they offered me a job in communications," says Rapley, a 27-year-old downtown resident. "Real estate actually makes sense, considering my skill set. I'm pretty entrepreneurial and I have a marketing background."

Rapley says the program facilitators helped him make his resume less generic and coached him on his interviewing skills and following up on job applications. But most of all, the program allowed him to practice. After so many role-playing and real interviews, he was able to avoid the trap that many job candidates get caught in -- being so intimidated by the interview process itself, they forget to sell themselves.

"You pump through the interviews one after another and you learn the structure of them," says Rapley.

It's the program's ability to level the playing field and allow people's skills to shine through that has made the program close to Tory's heart.

"These youth are great employees," she says. "They've just not necessarily been able to find their way through the recruitment process."