Skills for Change

Celebrating 20 years of service excellence
to New Canadians

SfCeNews
April 29, 2003
Volume 4  Issue 04

Skills for Change (SfC) is a non-profit agency based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Our mandate is to provide learning and training opportunities for immigrants and refugees so that they can participate in the workplace and wider community.

In this edition...

Launch of "Human Resource Services for Employers"
SkillsforHire goes online

Online Workshops

JobFair 2003 and BCP Awards Ceremony
Danish Federation of Trade Unions Visits

Newcomers Communicating with Employers
Learn$ave thanks DERC
Employer Expectations in Canada
SfC Volunteer of the Month
 

Skills for Change launches

for Employers
 

Does your company want to attract high quality candidates to fill existing or new positions? Is your Human Resources Department looking for professional development programs to help staff reach their full potential and increase productivity? Does your diverse workforce experience barriers to good communication? Skills for Change can help your organization meet these challenges through our Human Resource Services for Employers. In response to the increasing diversity of the greater Toronto labour market, Skills for Change has developed an array of human resource services - recruiting, employment preparation, professional development, language classes, computer skills training and consulting service - to help employers meet the demands of competing in a global economy. From recruiting to integration into the workplace, Skills for Change is a leader in making diversity a corporate asset. Human Resource Services for Employers include:

Recruitment Services On-Site Recruiting at Skills for Change Employment Preparation for Retail Services Professional Development Opportunities for Staff Mentoring for the Workplace Onsite Language Classes Work Experience Programs Consulting Services Computer Training

Click here for additional information or contact us at 416 658-3101 ext. 216 or employer@skillsforchange.org

New Web Site! Now Online!



Are you an employer who is hiring?
Our free referral services are for you!

SkillsforHire.org connects internationally trained
professionals with Canadian employers.

If you are an employer looking for skilled and highly
motivated candidates for your organization,
SkillsforHire.org is for you!

Search resumes and profiles of job candidates
in many areas including administration,
customer service and engineering.
 

2003


and

On April 25, 50 employers, colleges, community agencies and regulatory bodies, and over 800 job seekers, attended SfC's first annual Business Community Partnership Awards (BCP) ceremony and Job Fair.

At an breakfast awards ceremony, four companies were honoured for their partnership efforts to provide SfC clients with training and employment opportunities.  This years' recipients of a BCP award were HiTech Network Inc., Manpower, The Bay and the Toronto Transit Commission.

Following the awards ceremony, hundreds of job seekers from all over the city visited employers and information booths, attended workshops or spoke with SfC staff resume clinics. 

SfC and the Job Fair 2003 organizing committee thank the many companies and agencies for their participation:

Professional Development at Your Desk

The Ontario Network for International Professionals Online (ONIP.online) is launching a series of monthly online workshops for career development practitioners working with internationally-educated professionals.

Participation is easy: review the schedule below, pick up a workshop and write to Elga Nikolova to register. There is no fee for participation.

Workshops Schedule

Tuesday, April 29, 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM
New Online Resources for Internationally-trained Professionals
Presenter: Elga Nikolova, Project Coordinator, ONIP.online.

Thursday, May 8, 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM
Creating Winning Resumes for Your Clients with Engineering Background
Presenter: Lionel Laroche, Ph.D. P.Eng, Executive Vice President Cross-cultural and Relocation Services at CPI Hazell & Associates, author of “Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions”

June 2003, date and time to be announced
Building and Maintaining Relationships with Employers for Successful Placement of Your Internationally-trained Clients
Presented by staff from the Centre for Foreign Trained Professionals and Tradespeople, Toronto.

How to participate
All workshops will be conducted on the Internet using a chat room. You do not need to go anywhere, or be absent from work. Just make sure to book the time for the workshop in your planner, and have access to a computer with Internet connection and a browser.

ONIP.online is a project of Skills for Change, funded by Volunteer@ction.online and by the Ontario Trillium Foundation

Danish Federation of Trade Unions visits

A 25-member delegation from the Danish Federation of Trade Unions visited Skills for Change on April 9, 2003. The group is studying Canadian integration policy, labour market and other related issues for immigrants. Most of the participants are members of, and working in, different Danish Trade Unions or in municipalities.

Newcomers Communicating With Employers

Looking for work? Are you in Canada less than 2 years time? This series of workshops for newcomers will cover:
 

Presenting Yourself Confidently Contacting Employers by Telephone Answering Those Killer Questions Video-Taping Your Practice Interviews Evaluating Your Performance

Upon completion you will receive a certificate.

Workshops will be held May 12 - 16, 2003, from 12 noon - 4 p.m. at the Dufferin Mall Employment Resource Centre. [map]

Please pre-register, in person, 1-2 weeks prior to start date.  Bring a copy of your résumé when you register. Seats are limited to 15 clients.

Learn$ave thanks DERC
by Ouliana Baisa

Learn$ave is a national project that helps low-income individuals to save up for their future education or to start a new business.

On April 9th, 2003, Learn$ave held an event to celebrate two years of success.

The project recognized Dufferin Mall Employment Resource Centre (DERC) as the most accommodating among the thirty agencies that have helped Learn$ave to achieve their intake target.

John Stapleton, from the CUSP Project at St. Christopher House, spoke at the event about the history of welfare in Ontario. Did you know that welfare in Ontario was initiated in the 1930s by the Department of National Defense as a reaction to the fear of “bolshevism” among the poor?

Mr. Stapleton said that society today is conflicted about social assistance. On one hand, welfare is not sufficient; on the other, people say that “adequate welfare will breed dependency.” It makes sense, then, to reform the system in a way that enables individuals to save money for the purpose of meeting their long-term goals – self-sufficiency in the future vs. short-term financial needs.

Since Learn$ave has proved so successful, its model (which educates and aids the poor in saving money) might be considered as an alternative approach toward improving the social assistance system.

As the old saying goes “If you give a man a fish – he’ll eat for the day; if you teach a man to fish – you feed him for life.” No wonder DERC is so proud to contribute to the success of Learn$ave, which is blazing a trail to a better future for the nation.

Speakers' Series

Are you sending out hundreds of resumes and receiving little response? Not sure where to look for work in your field? Having trouble getting a job because you have been out of the workforce for a while, are a new graduate or a foreign trained professional without "Canadian experience"? If you answered yes to any of these questions then you
won't want to miss our Special Speaker's Series in June.

Dufferin Mall Employment Resource Centre will be inviting experts to provide participants with Resume and Job Search Tips. These workshops will cater to specific groups of people (newcomers, graduates, experienced workers) and occupations (engineers, accountants, health care professionals).

More information will be available soon on our next e-newsletter, monthly calendar and web site (derc.ca).

If you have a suggestion for an amazing speaker, let us know: erc@skillsforchange.org.

Employer Expectations in Canada
 

Michelle Greefhorst, Kori Zsigmong, Daniel Gilliece

Hosted by the JSW and STIC programs, the "Employer Expectations in Canada" workshop was held March 31.

The workshop was led by Daniel Gilliece, Human Resources Director from Coretec Inc., and his team. The workshop was effective, informative and useful in clearly highlighting employer expectations in Canada. We thank and appreciate the initiative of Coretec Inc. in investing its time and resources to reach out to the community.

 

Skills for Change salutes Titi Oridota, the Volunteer Coordinator for our free Income Tax Clinic for Newcomers to Canada.

Titi immigrated to Canada from Nigeria in 2002 where she was employed as an audit manager for KPMG and Deloitte Touche. She joined SfC’s STIC Accounting class in November and graduated in February 2003.

Titi’s leadership has been outstanding – she recruited and trained the volunteers, scheduled appointments, ensured that each client received the highest level of service possible and made the clinic run like clockwork. During the two months that the clinic was open, Titi and her volunteer staff helped more than 200 individuals with the preparation and filing of their 2002 income tax returns.

Thanks Titi!
 

Acronym Soup

Confused? Don't be. Here's a list of our agency acronyms, what they mean and (where applicable) a link to the program web page.
 

CES - Clerical Employment Services
CIS - Cultural Interpreting Service

EAS - Employment Assistance Services

EPRS - Employment for Retail Services

ERC - Employment Resource Centre

FOAP - Finance & Office Assistant Program

IAT - Intake, Assessment and Training

JSC - Job Search Centre

JSW - Job Search Workshop

LINC - Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada

NPA - New Pioneers Awards

STIC - Sector Terminology Information & Counselling

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