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Jun 09
Love4

Career Edge Organization presents Gen Y study at the CACEE National Conference

By Events & Holidays

From August 30 to September 30, 2010 Career Edge Organization conducted an anonymous online survey among 1,118 young Canadians ages 18-29. The idea was to build on insights from our Gen Y: Part I Survey but this time offer employers a closer look at the career aspirations and expectations of “Generation Y” (ages 18-29), particularly with respect to workplace culture and work environment.

Like its predecessor, our second Gen Y Survey was a hit. The surprising results were published in over a dozen major publications across Canada including the Toronto Star, the Ottawa Citizen, the Montreal Gazette, the Calgary Herald, the Vancouver Sun, the Edmonton Journal and the Canadian HR Reporter, to name a few. Companies such as TD Waterhouse also added this information to their HR sites as reference. Here are some of the articles:

TheStar.com
Study: What twentysomethings want from their job
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/884676–study-what-twentysomethings-want-from-their-jobs

CanadianHRReporter.com
Gen-Y employees want traditional environment, compensation: Survey
http://www.hrreporter.com/ArticleView.aspx?l=1&articleid=8387

VancouverSun.com
Gen Y, more traditional than previously thought
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/more+traditional+than+previously+thought/3787907/story.html

Recently, our VP Donna Smith and our Director of Marketing & Communications, Janice Rudkowski, presented the findings to an engaged and enthusiastic audience of employers and career educators at  this year’s CACEE  National Conference.

The annual event brings together between 250-350 human resources and career services professionals representing academic institutions and employers across Canada.

Next week we will be posting some tidbits from our survey, starting with a coveted list of the Top 10 Employers as selected by Gen Y respondents. So, stay tuned!

May 19
Love4

Career Bridge Program Alumna featured in Canadian Immigrant

By Events & Holidays

000 tetAt Career Edge Organization, one of our greatest measures of success is the success of our former interns. This is why we are continuously working to improve our connectivity and communication with those who have participated in our Career Edge, Ability Edge or Career Bridge paid internship programs – folks we now fondly refer to as “Alumni.”

Many of our former interns have moved on (and up) in their careers to achieve enormous success in their chosen fields, and like proud parents, all of us here get a warm, fuzzy feeling when we hear about the impact our host employers have helped us make.

One of these amazing former interns is Teresita “Tet” Lopez-Rabson. You may recall, we featured Tet in our special edition newsletter from September 2010 when we celebrated our 10,000th intern.

Tet, who got her start at Seneca College as a Career Bridge intern in 2004, has since climbed the ranks to Director and now coaches and hires Career Bridge interns herself! Tet has also remained engaged with us here at Career Edge Organization, participating in events like our recent 2010/11 Achievement Awards where she took part in a special ceremony to commemorate our 15th anniversary.

Now Tet is making headlines again, this time in Canadian Immigrant magazine. Click here to read her story on canadianimmigrant.ca!

Due to her can-do attitude and lovely personality, it is no surprise to us that Tet’s story has captured the attention of so many – she is an excellent example of the thousands of incredible people who faced barriers to employment and tore those barriers down. Kudos to Tet, and to Seneca College for seeing her great potential!

May 13
Love4

City of Toronto recognized for “Immigrant Success”

By Events & Holidays

When the opportunity came to us to nominate an employer for TRIEC’s annual Immigrant Success Awards, we had a difficult decision to make. Career Edge Organization works with so many incredible organizations (both big and small, private and public and not-for-profit too) in Ontario who use the Career Bridge paid internship program for hiring internationally qualified professionals.

In 2009, we nominated St. Michael’s Hospital for the Toronto Star Award for Excellence in Workplace Integration, and they won!

In 2009, Career Edge Organization nominated St. Michael's hospital - and they won!

John King, Senior VP & CAO, St. Michael’s (top right) – Photo credit: MANSA Photography

After some deliberation, this year we decided to nominate the City of Toronto. It was definitely the right choice. 2010 was a fantastic year for the city in terms of creating meaningful paid internship opportunities for immigrants. As one of the most diverse cities in North America, the City of Toronto is expected to lead by example, and they truly have embraced this challenge.

Although the City of Toronto was not selected by TRIEC as one of this year’s winners, they were shortlisted as a finalist and received recognition on their website and at their event.

Here is what TRIEC had to say about the City of Toronto:

When half of the population are immigrants, it is critical that city government reflects its community. The City of Toronto has been involved in many programs that give opportunities to skilled immigrants, but it is only recently that it has began to link initiatives together, developing action plans and embedding strategies – to ensure that best practices are organization-wide.

The City of Toronto has developed and publicized a long-term human resource strategy — the Public Service People Plan. Says the City’s Barbara Shulman, Director, Strategic Recruitment, Compensation & Employment Services: “The City is a leader in service delivery because of its positive and productive work environment that is inclusive and reflective of the diverse community it serves.”

Programs that fall under the strategy include working with a specialized engineering co-op program through the Toronto District School Board; making HR more accessible with a walk-in employment office at Metro Hall; improved onboarding systems; and long-time partnership involvement in mentoring and internship for skilled immigrants.

Since 2003, the City has provided more than 75 paid internships through Career Bridge, with more than one third of participants hired full-time. Originally in just two divisions, Career Bridge is now active in 14 divisions.

The City is also one of the original corporate partners of TRIEC’s Mentoring Partnership, with 238 City employees mentoring 554 skilled immigrants to date. Initially the program began with 29 mentors representing accounting, engineering and IT. Today the program has spread to include 16 professions across the organization.

Career Edge Organization worked with some of our key contacts at the City of Toronto to put together this award submission. When the time came around for our own Achievement Awards, we were happy to present them with one of our coveted “Career Bridge Program Awards.” Congratulations to everyone at the City of Toronto!

Apr 01
Love3

Driving your business strategy: Adapting to changes in Canadian demographics

By Events & Holidays

This past week, our President and CEO, Anne Lamont was invited by the Toronto Board of Trade to participate in a Webinar aimed at employers in the GTA. The complimentary webinar, entitled Driving Your Business Strategy: Adapting to Changes in Canadian Demographics addressed the need for businesses to adapt and change with the times, identifying “new opportunities” in the form of diverse talent pools.

Read More

Nov 11
Love3

Should Remembrance Day be a statutory holiday? Lest we forget.

By Events & Holidays

NEW: Click here to take the poll!

blog button_tell us what you thinkScanning this morning’s to-do list, I see a long list of things to remember – remember to do this, remember to get that, remember to call someone, remember your appointments… and somewhere, buried in that long list is one small bullet point:

~ Remembrance Day, 11 AM ***

It’s there, lest I forget.

poppyRemembering the extraordinary sacrifices and tragedies that occurred in times of war is incredibly important to us here at Career Edge Organization, and not just as a Canadian not-for-profit that promotes diversity but as a genuinely diverse team with people who represent a wide range of cultures and ethnicities. Each of us here have a different understanding of what war means – what it has meant to us, our families and our ancestors.

At 11 AM we will be taking a few moments in silence to reflect upon these things and each of us, in our own way that is relevant to us, will pay our respects.

But there are those that feel this is not enough, and that in the busyness of our day, Remembrance Day will be nothing more than an afterthought, spliced into our to-do lists somewhere between points 6 and 7. Furthermore as WWII veterans age there is a growing concern that the memories will be lost with them and eventually forgotten (despite the best efforts of Mr. Spielberg and others).

In Canada, Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec are the only provinces that don’t observe Remembrance Day as a statutory holiday, although many organizations such as banks and government do take the day off.

Every year the same debate arises – this year, an Ontario Conservative MPP is introducing a bill to have Remembrance Day replace February’s 3 year-old “Family Day” as a stat holiday. The debate has even taken to Facebook and other forums.

Others argue that the holiday is best observed by children when they are at school and by adults when they are at work – putting people in environments where there is a formal structure around recognizing the holiday. Their concern is that without this people would spend the days at home watching day-time television and the issues won’t even be talked about or in some cases, even acknowledged.

There are definitely two considerable sides to this debate – what do you think?

Oct 22
Love4

Happy Birthday, Blog! The “CEO Blog” turns 1 today

By Events & Holidays

Exactly one year ago our little organization had a big launch for our blog with its inaugural post, An Open Door Policy.

Since October 2009 Career Edge Organization’s official organizational blog has brought over 8,000 readers economic and employment news, updates, discussion, research and profiles in over 75 individual posts!

We’ve had over 14,000 pageviews and continue to build a loyal community of returning readers, primarily in Canada.

At Career Edge Organization, we’ll be celebrating with some delicious cake and a big thank you to everyone on our team who has contributed content or ideas for the blog. Most importantly, we would like to thank you, our loyal readers who have helped make our transition to the web 2.0 world a wonderful success.

Happy Birthday Blog!

Oct 14
Love4

Download My Talent – Toronto Life Magazine profiles the city’s most innovative new talent

By Events & Holidays

tech

Everyone knows that Career Edge Organization works with both Canadian and international corporate giants like Bell, RBC, GE, and the list goes on.

But our interns – including recent grads, grads with disabilities and experienced newcomers – have found homes in small organizations as well, many of them entrepreneurial start-ups in the IT sector.

Some of our smaller, less ubiquitous hosts recently popped up in an issue of Toronto Life. In a fascinating article called “Download My App” by Katrina Onstad (with photography by Daniel Ehrenworth), the magazine profiles some of the cutting-edge, high-tech innovation that has been brewing in the Canadian city.

The companies profiled, such as Extreme Venture Partners and Five Mobile, are for the most part young, diverse, hip and forward-thinking enterprises with fun workplace cultures that attract some of the world’s brightest talent, keeping them motivated to do what they do best – create.

In a nutshell, the article describes “how a bunch of young tech entrepreneurs have turned Toronto into the next Silicon Valley.”

Toronto is known to be one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world – people have brought ideas and perspectives from all over the world. This is the perfect mentality for “the wired generation,” whose world is not defined by physical space, let alone geographical borders.

A less expensive (albeit colder) living option than Silicon Valley, with free healthcare and, as the article points out, “excellent bars,” Toronto has quickly become a hotbed of talent.

It’s no surprise to us that Career Edge Organization host employers Bluecat Networks and Polar Mobile, both profiled in the article, also see the value of partnering with us for talent. These entrepreneurs represent a generation that knows “the right thing to do” also makes good business sense, and so partnering with a not-for-profit to bring in top quality talent like youth or internationally qualified professionals who face barriers to work in the Canadian job market – well it’s kind of a no-brainer.

Kudos to all the great companies mentioned in the article, to Canada for being awesome, and to Toronto Life for putting together such a cool article – we highly recommend you pick up a copy!

Sep 08
Love3

This Labour Day Career Edge Organization celebrates 10,000 internships!

By Events & Holidays

By guest contributor, Anne Lamont, President & CEO at Career Edge Organization

10000 cupcake celebration

It is truly a privilege to be part of an organization that has had such a positive impact on the Canadian business community as well as on individuals and families across the nation. Leading a passionate and dedicated team further enhances this experience.

While it is a pleasure, however, it is often a challenge as well – this is especially true in challenging economic times. So when the opportunity to celebrate arises, we embrace it.

As you might already be aware from our press release, our special edition e-newsletter or other announcements, we recently reached a significant milestone in our organization’s history and it is with pride that we can now proclaim that through our Career Edge, Ability Edge and Career Bridge paid internship programs, our internship numbers have surpassed 10,000.

Our small team recently gathered and celebrated with cupcakes – each one with an individual staff member’s name – a testament to the importance of each team member’s contributions.

Our internship programs have not only launched 10,000 careers, they have also provided employers with over 10,000 talented interns. Additionally, thousands of individuals have had the opportunity to be a mentor or a coach to an intern, which for many was an invaluable experience that contributed significantly to their own professional growth and development.

Our former interns or alumni, as we refer to them, represent individuals who came to Career Edge Organization, frustrated by their inability to secure meaningful work opportunities in their professional fields. Through the commitment and support of our valued host employers, who opened up their minds and doors to quality, diverse talent, we have launched the careers of engineering, marketing, human resources, operations, IT and business professionals across the country in a variety of industries such as financial services, technology, health care and telecommunications to public service, pharmaceuticals and the environment.

Career Edge Organization is proud to have uncovered such a wealth of talent by looking beyond mainstream candidates and tapping into under-utilized sources of talent, in order to help employers connect with the right talent who have the right skills and fit with their unique environments. It is our quality talent, our ability to adapt to change, our openness to new ideas and technology, and many other factors that have allowed us to stand where we are today.

We hope you will join us in celebrating this incredible feat as we celebrate 10,000 successful internships and look forward to achieving the next 10,000!

Jul 29
Love4

Career Edge Organization gets unGeeked with the Elite

By Events & Holidays

This week, some of us with Career Edge Organization’s marketing team registered for the “unGeeked Elite” conference in Toronto – a three day social media, branding and marketing retreat. Their website explains it best:

unGeeked Elite Retreat is your three day retreat where you will experience “some of the formality of a conference,” and a lot of the informality of retreat. The 3-days are designed to foster not only an “intimate learning experience,” but also deeper networking and bonding with attendees like yourself who want to connect beyond the Tweet-up or cocktail party business card gala.

So you may be wondering – why is a not-for-profit organization whose mandate is around employment and diversity participate in a social media conference?

As we all know, behind the scenes of any good organization there is a marketing team looking for innovative ways to better serve and engage their stakeholders. We may be a small team, but we are one of the most forward-thinking private organizations in Canada’s not-for-profit sector. We pride ourselves on being “nimble” which has allowed us to change and shift with the times, better responding to market demands and stakeholder needs.

In 2009, before the launch of this blog, we participated in Social Tech Training held by Web of  Change and Career Edge host employers, MaRS. This social media boot-camp for not-for-profits gave us a strong foundation of expertise that helped kick start exciting initiatives like this blog, our LinkedIn and Facebook groups and our Twitter account, as well us our online/offline professional network for Alumni.

But now we’re ready (and hungry) for more.

As the Canadian economy emerges, victoriously, from an economic slump, it is more critical than ever for private organizations like us (who don’t receive government funding) to step up our game and offer more. We hope to use the knowledge gained at this conference to improve all aspects of what we do whether it by our website, our relationship management processes and the way we communicate with employers, partners, job-seekers (aka registrants), interns and alumni.

The first unGeeked Elite was held in Milwaukee. Now it’s making the rounds to San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Orlando and Chicago. Toronto will be kicking things off on October 28th. We hope to see you all there!

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