The TEQ LIP has completed another successful Immigrant Employment Week event. This year’s theme “Connections for Success” celebrated the successes of newcomer professionals’ integration in the Canadian labour market while highlighting job readiness and preparedness.
Over 40 events took place in the course of the week across Scarborough and Toronto, including workshops, networking events, information sessions and webinars.
Highlights of IEW 2015
Opening Celebration
The week took off to a great start with the Opening Celebration, which took place on Monday May 25th at the Scarborough Civic Centre. There were 84 participants in attendance. The event featured an inspiring keynote address by Paulette Senior, CEO of YWCA. Following the speech was an expert led panel discussion on Professional Accreditation. Featured panelists included Ursula Lipski – Global Experience Ontario, Loy Asheri – RPN and Case Manager for CARE and Ellen Austin – HR Business Partner from the Business Development Bank of Canada. All panelists brought a diverse perspective to the event that was useful for both service providers and the newcomer community.
Participants also had the opportunity to engage in the “Immigrant Talk” networking table activity led by Sophie Duan, which included an interactive information exchange facilitated by 8 immigrant professionals who shared their challenges, successes, experiences and learnings.
IEW Workshops And Events
The majority of workshops and events during the week aligned very well with the theme, “Connections for Success”. It was a platform used to foster partnerships and collaboration among service providers.
With events like IEW, we want to keep encouraging to build more awareness of support and programs available to help newcomers become successful in the Canadian labour market and to further engage more employers.
Closing Celebration
IEW officially concluded on a lighter note with at least 75 people in attendance. The Closing celebration took place on Friday May 29th at the Ellesmere Community Centre. It was a celebration of the overall accomplishments in which the TEQ LIP exceeded the initiatives’ objectives. Sara Motjehdzadeh, work and wealth reporter of the Toronto Star delivered a heartwarming and factual speech on future projections and stats for the Canadian Labour market. A selected few participating agencies took part in the ceremony and shared highlights and successes of their workshops and events. The participants were dazzled by performances from the Rainbow Young Dancers and Sadia Rafiq from the Nupur Dance Academy who sang a lovely Bollywood song. Following the entertainment participants had the opportunity to browse the “United Colours of Scarborough” Immigrant Art Exhibition. There were at least 10 artists who showcased an array of art, jewelry, textiles, paintings and food.
A special thank you goes out to our Sponsors of Scotia bank, Starbucks Coffee and C&D Graphics.
Thank you and congratulations to all the participating agencies and organizations that made IEW 2015 a huge success! Thanks to everyone’s participation, we over exceeded in raising awareness to immigrant employment involving immigrants, employers and service providers across the city.