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Jul 21
Love4

Teams that play together, stay together

By Uncategorized

The Toronto 2015 Pan Am games are in full swing and have captured the fervor of sports fans across the country, as they root for their favourite teams and athletes. In the corporate world, company leaders try to inspire the same level of fandom and engagement in the office, rather than the stadium.

Studies have shown that greater employee engagement has a significant, positive influence on work quality and revenue, and company-sponsored sports teams are a great way to make that happen for the following five reasons:

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Jun 23
Love4

Shifting how we think about internships

By Uncategorized

Internships have changed the way businesses attract and recruit talent, fundamentally replacing the entry-level jobs of yesteryear. This changing landscape inspired our most recent workshop, InternSHIFT, an informative and interactive discussion held earlier this month at the 2015 CACEE National Conference in Ottawa. Through this Town Hall Meeting style session, Naguib Gouda, President of Career Edge, led conference delegates through the changing internship landscape, while exploring how paid internships contribute to our economy and social infrastructure.

For those who were unable to attend the conference, we have assembled the key highlights from InternSHIFT below, starting with a quick pop quiz.

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Dec 12
Love4

Career Buzz: “Get an edge on your career with Career Edge.”

By Uncategorized

Career Edge was featured on Career Buzz, a radio show broadcast on CIUT 89.5 FM, on December 10. The show was hosted by Mark Franklin, President and Practice Leader at CareerCycles, a Toronto-based career management social enterprise. During the show, Mark interviewed Naguib Gouda, President of Career Edge and a staunch advocate for paid internships. Naguib was joined by Sydney Helland, Marketing & Communications Coordinator at Career Edge, who launched her career through a Career Edge paid internship. During the show, both Naguib and Sydney shared their career stories and chatted about the socio-economic impact of paid internships and the benefits of Career Edge’s internship model.

If you are an employer looking to learn more about paid internships, or a job seeker aspiring to launch your career, play or download the radio episode by clicking here to hear how Career Edge’s paid internship programs can help.

Career Buzz radio show of Dec. 10, first broadcast on CIUT 89.5 FM in Toronto. Produced and hosted by Mark Franklin, president and practice leader of CareerCycles (www.careercycles.com)

About Career Buzz: Career Buzz aims to inspire, educate and entertain listeners in the area of career satisfaction, how careers really happen, and what listeners might do to find more career happiness. If you believe that career happiness and having stories like yours heard is valuable, please consider supporting CIUT and Career Buzz during the twice annual membership campaign, which you can find out about by signing up for the Watch for Clues Newsletter on www.careercycles.com.

Aug 11
Love6

Career Edge and the National Association of Career Colleges (NACC) partner to help skilled newcomers join Canada’s workforce

By Uncategorized

Career Edge and the NACC have joined forces to connect internationally qualified professionals (IQPs) with leading organizations to help re-launch careers in Canada.

The partnership’s pilot program, NACC Edge, is an alternative career pathway that aims to help IQPs find relevant work in their area of expertise by using their Canadian-obtained training and skills. After completing a training program at an NACC member career college, program graduates can re-launch their careers in Canada through Career Edge’s paid internships in related occupations.

The paid internship program focuses on opportunities in various sectors, such as information technology (IT), administration, and health care. Many IQPs join the program in order to enter regulated professions within these fields.  The NACC Edge program enables IQPs to continue working in their field while re-training to meet the needs of the job market.

The NACC and Career Edge share a common goal of helping create opportunities for IQPs, giving them a greater chance at finding professional success in Canada, whether through education and training programs or through career-related work experience.

“The NACC’s members are very excited to see this partnership come into effect,” said Serge Buy, NACC’s Chief Executive Officer. “This is one concrete step we can take toward reducing the challenges faced by IQPs when they seek to obtain work experiences in their fields.”

Canada’s labour force has experienced a growing number of underutilized workers who resort to accepting “survival jobs” to stay afloat when they are faced with a job market that seldom recognizes their international experience and accreditation. The NACC Edge program seeks to address this pressing issue by ensuring IQPs are integrated into Canada’s workforce, so that they are working to their full potential, while strengthening Canada’s globally competitive economy.

“We are very proud to partner with the NACC,” says Naguib Gouda, President of Career Edge. “Through this partnership, we’re giving more options to newcomers who are struggling to acquire Canadian work experience that aligns with their career goals,” he says.

NACC Edge is available across the country and is delivered by NACC’s Regional Coordinators in Vancouver, Edmonton, and Toronto, and will be supported by staff at the NACC national office in Ottawa and Career Edge’s headquarters in Toronto.

Jul 29
Love6

Tips to help internationally qualified professionals re-launch their careers in Canada

By Uncategorized

RE: “Internationally Trained Professionals – Should They Abandon Their Profession?” by Lee Koren (http://bselected.wordpress.com/2014/07/02/internationally-trained-professionals-should-they-abandon-their-profession/)

Employment Consultant Lee Koren recently blogged about her experience helping internationally qualified professionals (IQPs) overcome the challenges faced when attempting to re-launch their careers in Canada.

Koren explains that while the government has made social programming available to support the settlement of new immigrants, employers’ behaviour, in terms of recognizing international (versus Canadian) work experience, remains a challenge – despite the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s policy on removing the “Canadian experience” barrier.

Too often, this barrier results in skilled immigrants taking “survival jobs” that are well below their level of education and experience acquired abroad. This is not only a huge setback for IQPs, but also for Canada’s economy.

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Jun 25
Love5

Report from FINA recommends the protection of intern rights

By Uncategorized

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) has released “Youth Employment in Canada: Challenges and Potential Solutions” – a report that summarizes the information gathered in relation to the Committee’s Youth Employment Study that was adopted on October 29, 2013.

As part of this study, the Committee held seven hearings in March and April of 2014; 38 groups or individuals made presentations to the Committee, and an additional 26 written briefs were received. Career Edge was privileged to have been included among those invited to appear as a witnesses, and to submit a brief with recommendations towards improving employment outcomes for Canada’s youth.

Career Edge’s brief that was presented to the Committee on April 8, 2014 included the following recommendation:

“That the government enact federal legislation to the Canada Labour Code that specifically outlines the conditions of internships across all of Canada’s provinces and territories. This will ensure fairness and the protection of young workers, while giving employers firm guidelines for incorporating internships and internship programs into their recruitment, retention, and succession planning initiatives.”

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Jun 05
Love6

Cultivating a sustainable future

By Uncategorized

Career Edge Achievement Awards celebrate successes in socio-economic sustainability

For recent graduates and newcomers joining the Canadian workforce, finding meaningful work opportunities that align with their desired career path is a critical – albeit challenging – step towards becoming successful and prosperous members of Canada’s society and economy.

Recognizing the socio-economic significance of connecting the right talent with the right jobs, many organizations and individuals have demonstrated leadership and cultivated innovative employment solutions, allowing more people to make an investment in their career.

On June 5, Career Edge – a self-sustaining social enterprise – celebrated the achievements of those who have successfully launched or helped launch meaningful careers in Canada at its annual Achievement Awards ceremony.

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Apr 03
Love5

Open Letter RE: Ministry of Labour’s crackdown on unpaid internships

By Uncategorized

As a staunch advocate for paid internships, Career Edge supports the Ministry of Labour’s crackdown on internships that violate the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) in Ontario.  We believe enforcement of the law is the right thing to do, in order to prevent exploitation of our youth and to protect workers’ rights.

In our opinion, the search for a resolution to the issue of unpaid internships will require the collaboration between the government, employers and our youth:

  1. The government needs to educate employers on the stipulations outlined in the ESA, while safeguarding young people’s rights and ensuring fair and equitable access to career-launching opportunities.
  2. Employers must be willing to invest in our future by ensuring young people receive the experience required to grow professionally and become tomorrow’s leaders.
  3. Young people have a responsibility to educate themselves on their rights and make informed decisions to invest in their career.

From our experience, we know that unpaid internships limit opportunities to a certain socio-economic class – only those who can afford to work without pay have the chance to gain experience in this way.  Paid internships, on the other hand, offer an inclusive and accessible way for young people to transition into the workforce and get the experience needed to launch their career, while being fairly compensated for their work.  With that in mind, we must find ways to make internships work for employers, while ensuring equity for young people entering the labour force.  We must also ensure interns have the opportunity to make a decent living and to get on the right track to a promising career – without restricting the number of opportunities available to them.

Career Edge has remained passionate about connecting recent graduates – including those with disabilities – and internationally qualified professionals with leading organizations for paid internships since 1996; not only because we know it is good business practice, but also because we know it works.  Over fifty five per cent (55.46%) of our interns are hired by their host employer during or immediately after their internship, with the majority of the rest finding work elsewhere within six months of completing their internship.  For this reason, we hope to continue helping the government, employers, and youth leverage internships that launch careers and support Ontario’s social and economic sustainability.

Sincerely,

Naguib Gouda
President
Career Edge Organization

Dec 20
Love5

The CEO Blog selected as favourite working life writers of 2013

By Uncategorized

BrighterLife-Award-Working-Life_500pxThe CEO blog was just selected as one of the winners of the 2013 Working Life Award, presented by Sun Life Financial’s Brighter Life Likes! As Career Edge’s resident blogger, I am delighted to have our blog receive this recognition – what a great way to start a new year of blogging! I would like to extend a big “Thank you!” to the inspiring individuals and organizations that I have had the honour of writing about in 2013. Read on to learn more about the Brighter Life and our fellow award winners…

“Our mission at Brighter Life is to create and share useful information about the topics that matter the most to Canadians – their finances, health, families, careers. As part of that task, we track down good reading from reliable sources on the Internet and, each Friday, we share our recommendations in the Brighter Life likes column.

With the year drawing to an end, we have gathered our favourites for working life in 2013. We hope they will help encourage and inspire you to live a successful, brighter life. Check them out, and follow them on Twitter:

  • n-gen. Follow Giselle Kovary, a specialist in managing generational differences in the workplace:@ngen_training
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