Today, Jumpstart Refugee Talent, Starbucks Canada, and World Education Services (WES) are hosting a hiring event for refugees and displaced individuals living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).
The Toronto Refugee Hiring Event represents a coordinated effort to support economic inclusion and improve the employment outcomes of refugees and forcibly displaced individuals by connecting them to the city’s top employers. Such efforts are key to addressing workforce shortages, filling over a million vacant positions across Canada, and strengthening the country’s commitment to increasing immigration levels and landing more than 225,000 refugees and displaced individuals by 2025.
“Many refugees and forcibly displaced individuals are key to addressing Canada’s labour force shortages and systemic issues that compromise Canada’s future prosperity, especially when the country’s working-age population is older than ever and close to retiring,” said WES managing director, Shamira Madhany.
The Toronto Refugee Hiring Event is an interagency initiative led by the Refugee Jobs Agenda Roundtable and headed by co-chairs The Honourable Ratna Omidvar and Darrell Pinto. Working collaboratively with partner agencies such as ACCES Employment, Achēv, COSTI Immigrant Services, City of Toronto, OTEC, Tent Partnership for Refugees, WoodGreen, and YMCA Greater Toronto, this coordinated and unified employment-focused project seeks to connect refugees to meaningful employment opportunities in the Greater Toronto Area.
“For refugees and newcomers to Canada, navigating the job market and finding the first job is a daunting task. The refugee hiring event is a great initiative because agency partners gather their resources and collectively lead the candidates to success,” said The Honourable Ratna Omidvar.
The event will take place from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. today, Monday, November 21, at Metro Hall, in the city’s downtown core and will convene Toronto’s top employers, such as CIBC, IKEA, and TD Bank, in a single location.
“We have seen tremendous success sharing our hiring practices with other employers to support their refugee hiring, and we’re hopeful more will join this effort,” said Ross Anderson, head of social impact, public policy and sustainability at Starbucks Canada. “Starbucks Canada has grown our refugee hiring program since 2018 to contribute to refugee integration into the Canadian workforce and to support the inclusion and diversity goal of reflecting the communities we serve.”
His Worship John Tory, Mayor of Toronto, will open the event, joined by representatives from Jumpstart Refugee Talent, Starbucks Canada, and WES. Job seekers will also have access to a Coaching Corner where they can receive interview tips from specialized employment consultants.
“Besides the on-site Coaching Corner, there has been substantive planning happening prior to the event,” said Malaz Sebai, director of operations at Jumpstart Refugee Talent. “For instance, we have carefully pre-screened all applications to ensure a match between a candidate’s profile and the jobs applied for. The agency partners then prepare their clients with job-specific training to increase the success rate of employment.”
Additional Canadian employers to participate at the event include Angus Consulting Management Limited, Compass Group Canada, Eaton Canada, Fairmont Royal York, Kenaidan Contracting Ltd., Les Entreprises SmartLux Inc., Royal Bank of Canada, and Rex Power Magnetics.
Members of the media are welcome to attend the Toronto Refugee Hiring Event. WES’ Shamira Madhany and representatives of partner organizations participating at the event, including Jumpstart Refugee Talent’s director of programs Rand Al Jammal and Starbucks Canada’s Ross Anderson, will be available for media interviews from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
