World Skills Receives ‘Strategic Community Partnership Appreciation Award, 2015’ from TD Canada

On June 16, 2015, World Skills Employment Centre was proud to receive the ‘Strategic Community Partnership Appreciation Award, 2015’ from the TD Ontario North and East, Asian Leadership Network. “We were delighted to be chosen for this award and we are proud of the mentorship program which we have developed with the Asian Leadership Network over the last five years.” – Magdalene Cooman, acting Executive Director.

The program celebrated its 5th Anniversary with the theme 5 – 500. 5 represents our 5th anniversary and 500 stands for 500 lives which have been touched by the program. 73 mentees have graduated and 68 mentors from TD Canada.

This program started in 2010 and was initiated by Magdalene Cooman and Mayank Sharma, a newcomer himself, who had received job search support from World Skills Employment Centre when he first arrived in Canada in 2003. Mayank Sharma and Christine Smith, at that time were the co-chairs of the Asian Leadership Network (ALN), an affinity group of TD-MBNA Canada. They sought support from Corporate TD Canada and the program has received executive sponsorship over the last four years. The Asian Leadership Network was the recipient of the Business Award from the Immigrant Women Services Ottawa as part of their 25th Anniversary Celebrations on March 6th, 2014.

In addition to the Mentorship Program, TD has actively participated in various activities at World Skills Employment Centre which includes the Interview Roulettes, Resume Clinics and Informational Interviews.

Interested in learning more about how you can support newcomers? Contact Magdalene at magdalene.maxwell@ottawa-worldskills.org