TORONTO, Oct. 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Toronto is hosting its fourth annual Refugee Hiring Event on October 7th, 2024, bringing together over 600 pre-screened refugees and displaced individuals with leading local employers. Organized by the Refugee Jobs Agenda Roundtable, the event aims to create meaningful employment opportunities and support the integration of refugees into the local workforce.
“The Toronto Refugee Hiring Event is an exceptional and much-needed way to bring together newcomers and top employers,” said the Honourable Ratna Omidvar, co-chair of the Refugee Jobs Agenda Roundtable. “This year’s hiring event will build on the strong momentum established over the past two years and provide people with the support and opportunities to make lasting connections and find meaningful employment. This model works.”
The 2023 Toronto Refugee Hiring Event resulted in on-the-spot job offers or second interviews for 86% of job seekers who attended, a result that is 13 times better than traditional job/career fairs. “I’m very thankful for the hiring event,” said Bajinder Kaur, a telecommunications account specialist who attended last year’s event. “I’m able to earn good money, I’m able to earn good commissions, and I’m able to raise my family.” Employers say the events are uniquely effective. “The Toronto Hiring Event was different from other job fairs in that we met a lot of people from our field of work, which made the event a lot more relevant for us,” said Arnold Mascarenhas, Recruiter at Angus Consulting Management, one of the employers who participated in the 2023 event. “We also found the most success in terms of hires from the Toronto Refugee Hiring Event. This is an event that we will look forward to every year.”
This year’s event will feature 23 employers from various industries, such as Ainsworth, Avanade, CIBC, and Western Financial, who are actively recruiting for nearly 200 job vacancies across 58 positions. The event will also offer child-minding services provided by a refugee-led social enterprise, Karegaroo. Each attendee will also have access to interview support from qualified professional counselors.
“The annual Refugee Hiring Event is crucial for offering refugees and displaced individuals a chance to rebuild their lives while enriching our communities with their skills, resilience, and diverse perspectives. I would like to thank World Education Services and Jumpstart Refugee Talent for their leadership and partnership in helping people coming to Toronto secure meaningful employment,” said Mayor Olivia Chow.
Organized by Jumpstart Refugee Talent, Future Ready Institute (an organization of the Ismaili Council for Canada), WoodGreen, and World Education Services, and supported by over 20 partners, including ACCES Employment, Achēv, CIBC, City of Toronto, COSTI, HMC Connections, Diversity Institute, TMU, Humber College, Karegaroo, New Canadians, Newcomer Women's Services Toronto, OTEC, Polycultural, RBC, Starbucks Canada, The King's Trust Canada, and YMCA GTA. Past Refugee Hiring Events have taken place in Moncton and Manitoba. Regina is hosting an event later in 2024. These events are a project of the Refugee Jobs Agenda Roundtable, which is a network of 150 members who are committed to increasing refugees’ access to meaningful employment opportunities and employers’ access to needed talent.
The Roundtable has designed these Refugee Hiring Events using a model that can be replicated in other communities and offers online training, coaching, and other resources to enable cities and provinces to host their own hiring events.
To learn more about the Refugee Jobs Agenda Roundtable, please visit www.welcomingeconomy.ca.
About Jumpstart Refugee Talent
Jumpstart Refugee Talent is an international, refugee-led charitable organization, headquartered in Toronto, Canada with a network of offices throughout Canada and around the world. Our work is dedicated to supporting the economic inclusion of refugees, refugee claimants, and forcibly displaced individuals, by connecting them with meaningful employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. We are also committed to assisting displaced people in finding durable solutions by leveraging labour mobility pathways and ensuring their relocation and successful integration into new communities.
About World Education Services
World Education Services (WES) is a non-profit social enterprise that supports the educational, economic, and social inclusion of immigrants, refugees, and international students. From evaluating academic credentials to shaping policy, designing programs, and providing philanthropic funding, we partner with a diverse set of organizations, leaders, and networks to uplift individuals and drive systems change.
About WoodGreen Community Services
WoodGreen Community Services is one of the largest social service agencies in Toronto, serving 37,000 people each year. We offer over 75 programs and services tackling the social determinants that affect the health and well-being of individuals in our community. WoodGreen works in close partnership with The Toronto West Local Immigration Partnership (TWLIP). TWLIP is a collaboration between newcomer-serving organizations to create a better experience for newcomers to Toronto. Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs) are a unique program funded by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), designed by and with locality in mind. LIPs build capacity, improve service coordination, and create connections between social service organizations in their regions.
