Best employers for new Canadians for 2013
Employers with locations in Toronto North
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Toronto. Commercial banking. 33,965 employees. Participated in a pilot program organized by Algonquin College to help internationally trained professionals bridge their finance credentials. The bank played host to students for the internship portion of the program.
Home Depot Canada,Toronto. Hardware stores. 13,580 employees. Stores partner with local community organization such as COSTI, the New Canadians Centre, Employment Projects of Winnipeg, Employment Solutions of Immigrant Youth, Saskatchewan Open Door Society and Immigration Works to support the employment efforts of new Canadians.
KPMG LLP,Toronto. Certified public accountants. 5,778 employees. Is working to further partner with the Consortium of Agencies Serving Internationally-Trained Professionals to match new Canadians with opportunities within the firm’s client administration group. Has also built additional partnerships with Skills for Change, ACCES, MicroSkills & Social Capital Partners.
Loblaw Co. Ltd.,Brampton, Ont. Supermarkets. 29,725 employees. In partnership with the University of Toronto, offers international pharmacy students internships for a period of four months while they complete their course. Once students are fully licensed, they are offered permanent positions.
Royal Bank of Canada,Toronto. Commercial banking. 52,815 employees. In partnership with Career Bridge, offers newcomers paid internship opportunities to help them gain work experience. Maintains an employee resource group for visible minorities and new Canadian employees called MOSAIC.
TELUS Corp.,Vancouver. Wired telecommunications carriers. 24,443 employees. Has worked with community organizations such as Skills for Change, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, ISS BC, ACCES Employment and Prospect Calgary, which has resulted in participation at a number of events including speed networking sessions, career fairs, webinars and lunch-and-learn sessions to support the employment efforts of new Canadian job seekers.
Xerox Canada Ltd.,Toronto. Computer peripheral equipment manufacturing. 3,588 employees. Participates in Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council’s mentoring partnership program and provides job seekers who are new to Canada with one-on-one time with a Xerox employee.
Toronto Police Services
Established a Diversity Management Unit which oversees the diversity policy and procedures, and diversity management and training programs. Have a recruiting team which is comprised of people from Asian, Black, Somali, Jewish and LGBT groups to promote policing as a career in their communities. Regularly attending job fairs and community events to recruit new officers from the city of Toronto's various cultural and ethnic groups.
Shopper’s Drug Mart
Employer provides on-the-job training to individuals with no experience for some positions. They promote those who have good performance to a supervisory role. This employer is very willing to take newcomer clients as long as they are motivated, are hardworking and have a positive attitude. Placements have stayed with this employer and are successful in their roles.
Other Newcomer Champion Employers in Toronto
Deloitte & Touche LLP,Toronto. Certified public accountants. 8,992 employees. Has participated in the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council’s Mentoring Partnership program since 2005 with hundreds of employees serving as mentors to new Canadian job seekers. Employees act as mentors for a four-month period.
Ernst & Young LLP,Toronto. Certified public accountants. 4,427 employees. Supports York University’s Internationally Educated Professional bridging program. Offers an in-house Chartered Accountant Reciprocity Exam program to assist employees with foreign credential recognition.
Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, Toronto. Lawyers. 1,437 employees. Sponsors the University of Toronto Faculty of Law’s Internationally-Trained Lawyers program, which supports foreign-trained lawyers during the Canadian certification process and provides them with resources such as placement opportunities, employment counselling and language referrals.
Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning,Toronto. Colleges, universities and professional schools. 1,355 employees. Is a member of the Consortium of Agencies Serving Internationally-Trained Persons, a group of community-based agencies and colleges that provide employment and training services to internationally trained job seekers.
Mount Sinai Hospital,Toronto. General medical and surgical hospitals. 2,302 employees. Supports the Centre for Internationally Educated Nurses (CARE4Nurses) project, a program to help nurses bridge international education and experience and prepare them for practise within Ontario.
Ontario Public Service, Toronto. General government support. 62,441 employees. Launched the Ontario Public Service Program for Internationally-Trained Engineers, which provides work placements of 12 to 15 months to help internationally trained engineers meet Canadian licensing requirements.
St. Michael’s Hospital,Toronto. Medical and surgical hospitals. 3,469 employees. Manages a dedicated website for the recruitment of Internationally Educated Professionals and forwards vacancies to a variety of multicultural media outlets.
Sources:
Medicorp Inc., Canada’s Best Diversity Employers 2014
Globe & MailBest employers for new Canadians for 2013
Employment Ontario Service Providers
Success Stories
Ontario Award for Leadership in Immigration Employment
Toronto Area Award Winners:
Ontario is recognizing the first ever recipients of the Ontario Award for Leadership in Immigrant Employment, for their role in championing diversity and supporting jobs in their communities.Five outstanding recipients from across the province were honoured during a ceremony at the 2013 Ontario Economic Summit at Niagara-on-the-Lake:
Marion Annau
Champion Category: Small Organization
As Founder of Connect Legal in Toronto, the first legal services clinic of its kind in Canada, Marion has helped over 1,000 small business owners, including immigrants, get their companies off the ground through one-on-one legal advice and interactive workshops.
Albert Yue
Dyversity Communications
Employer Category: Small Organization
The company connects Canadian and global brands with growing ethnic consumers in Canada. Based in Thornhill, almost the entire team is first generation immigrants, and the company invests resources towards hiring, training and retaining its employees.
Resources for Champion Employers