Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) launched its seventh round of mentoring program in early December at its global headquarters in Toronto. The program’s primary objective is to assist newcomers from India settle faster and better in Canada. It achieves this objective by helping internationally-trained newcomers from India connect with Canadians of Indian origin who are successful entrepreneurs and professionals.

More than a hundred mentees have successfully participated in ICCC’s mentoring initiative over the past five years. A total of 37 mentees registered for the seventh round of the program. The preceding six sessions held between 2010 and 2014 were successful in integrating of nearly 90% of the participating mentees into the job market. These modules witnessed participation from different sectors such as aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, marketing & communications, banking & finance, digital media; import-export business, insurance, investment, IT, and legal services.

Ajay Tandon, ICCC’s Director for Tourism and Hospitality, and Affinity Programs, welcomed the new batch of mentees and introduced them to the Chamber’s operations. He explained that the mentoring program aims to enable newcomers to build useful networks and familiarize them with Canadian work culture that assists them to integrate swiftly into the Canadian work culture. “We don’t provide jobs, but we train you to get one sooner, and once you get it, our training ensures that you are culturally attuned to retain it,” Mr. Tandon said.

Avin Mehra, the Chair of ICCC’s Mentoring Committee, during his presentation emphasized the methodologies used by the Chamber in the mentoring program were aimed at inculcating the right attitude amongst the mentees. “It is not that newcomers lack qualifications, it is just that they lack an understanding of Canadian work culture. And we aim to equip all the mentees with different vignettes of Canadian work culture.”

He further said, during the program, the mentors provide mentees with career and settlement guidance, which includes:

• Developing professional networks
• Evolving targeted job search strategies
• Enhancing understanding of Canadian workplace culture
• Strengthen knowledge of community resources and linkages to settlement services
• Skills development
• Imparting awareness about job search, language and literacy programs available to newcomers

The program is intended to benefit the mentees in the following areas:

• Increase their self-knowledge and awareness
• Obtain strategic tools for ongoing career development and success
• Enhance communication skills
• Develop professional etiquette
• Identify talents needed in the Canadian workplace
• Build networks for work and career success
• Find employment in their field of expertise

The program equally benefits the mentors to optimize their coaching and mentoring skills, build leadership excellence, dialogue with and learn from the experiences of internationally trained people, share knowledge and wisdom and explore new ideas and perspectives about their profession.

Participants at the Mentoring Program launch	Participants at the Mentoring Program launch