Celebrating Success
Written by Administrator Thursday, 24 September 2009 21:09
On September 23, 2009, ACCES inducted seven new clients into their Walk of Fame. ACCES Communications Director, Shawn Mintz explains, “The Walk of Fame is an annual event that celebrates the people we have helped in the last year to find work in their fields. We had over 20 people nominated this year and we chose seven. They act as role models for other newcomers and it shows our success to our funders, government and corporate sponsors.” Those selected for the honour this year include Meenakshi Manikumar, who began her Canadian accounting career with Frontline Technologies after ACCES forwarded her resume to the firm. “If it wasn’t for ACCES,” she said, “I wouldn’t have even known about this job because it wasn’t advertised in the paper or posted.”
Joining her in the ranks of the recently employed are Maria Brett, now a Senior IT Analyst with Johnson and Johnson. Says Brett, “My employment consultant was the first person who said to me ‘you can do it’.”
Honourees also included Sarbit Singh, who secured a manufacturing position with Harris Canada, Yong Shen, who was hired as a Production Manager with HBC, and Andrey Burkovskiy who is now Director of Social Media for Profile Entertainment.
“My main challenge,” says Burkovskiy, “is that I was sending out hundreds of resumes and I wasn’t getting any responses from employers.” After completing the ACCES program, he says, “I got the job on my first interview.”
Two of the inductees are graduates of the ACCES Financial Connections Program: Karen Brown, who recently began as a Senior Business Analyst with TD Bank Financial Group and Alex Povolotski, now a Senior Account manager at RBC.
Many of the candidates praised other ACCES programs including the Talk English Café, the Mentorship Program and the ground-breaking Speed Mentoring Events.
Special guests at the event included Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration Parliamentary Assistant Khalil Romal and Brampton Mayor Susan Fennel.
At the end of his speech, Romal thanked ACCESS “for creating the opportunity, for creating that link that gave these people a chance to pursue their new lives in Ontario.” Addressing the recipients, he added, It is your persistence and determination that got you those jobs, and I hope that all newcomers have a lot of faith in Canada, a lot of faith in Ontario, and they are determined and persistent and work hard in order to practice the job they love, the job they educated for.”
Fennel addressed the theme of Keeping Communities Working, pointing out that Brampton is “a city of extraordinary opportunities.” She said “In truth Brampton is so diverse that I say we’re no longer diverse, we’re all just Bramptonians. Almost everyone came from somewhere else, because 30 years ago, there were only about 9,000 people here and today there half a million. We speak over 100 languages. We’re a place you can work play and pray in peace.”
During the ceremony itself, each of the recipients was introduced along with their sponsors and employers – who were recognized for having the foresight and good fortune to bring these highly skilled and talented newcomers into Canada’s workplace.