Strength in Numbers for Immigrants Looking for Work

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - May 06, 2015) - Tonight, the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) is hosting a celebration of the Professional Immigrant Networks program.

The event will also celebrate Scotiabank's renewed three-year sponsorship of the program.

Professional Immigrant Networks (PINs) is a network of professional associations from across the Greater Toronto Area, funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and sponsored by Scotiabank since 2011.

The event will showcase stories of collaboration, launch a new video about the associations and introduce the reinvigorated Professional Immigrant Networks website.

These associations help immigrants looking for work to match their qualifications by accessing job-search support, mentoring and networking opportunities. The leaders who run these associations have been on similar journeys and have firsthand knowledge of what it's like to search for work as a newcomer.

"We saw more and more of these associations springing up, and we wanted to support this innovative, immigrant-led work," said Margaret Eaton, Executive Director, Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council. "We wanted to partner with them and help them do what they do better, and so the PINs program was born."

Professional Immigrant Networks empowers associations by offering them leadership development opportunities and connecting leaders to service providers and employers. Professional Immigrant Networks leaders are volunteers, so the opportunity to come together and share expertise, experiences and resources is invaluable.

"As Canada's international bank, we appreciate just how important newcomers are to both our communities and to our workforce," said Puneet Mann, Scotiabank's Co-Lead of Multicultural Banking. "We are proud to support the PINs associations as they work to create opportunities for their members to find meaningful employment and build stronger communities in the process."

Tonight's event will be hosted by PINs leader Amal Ratnayake, from CIMA Canada. He said, "The resources made available by the PINs network are extremely useful to our newcomer members and the professional networking opportunities provided are invaluable. I believe that together, we can make life easier for internationally trained professionals that follow us in making Canada their home."