TRIEC Mentoring Partnership — Toronto's Skilled-Immigrant Employment Bridge

The Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) was founded in September 2003 by the Maytree Foundation and the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance as an independent, multi-stakeholder council bringing together employers, professional associations, governments, immigrant-serving agencies and educational institutions to help skilled immigrants use their qualifications in the Toronto region's labour market. It is funded by the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario and private partners.

Its flagship initiative, the TRIEC Mentoring Partnership, matches job-ready skilled immigrants with established professionals in similar occupations for a structured mentoring relationship. Since it began, the Partnership has matched more than 5,300 skilled immigrants with mentors, drawing in more than 60 council member organisations and over 50 employer partners — including TD Bank Group, whose employees alone have mentored close to 700 newcomers since 2005 (Government of Canada). A related Career Edge internship partner has placed more than 1,300 immigrants into internships with 350-plus host employers.

A 2020 third-party evaluation, Demand For & Impact of Mentoring Newcomer Professionals, found that mentored participants were 2.5 times more likely to land good-quality employment than similar non-participants, with 85% of those who found work landing permanent, full-time roles, and more than 80% reporting improved job-search skills; the strongest gains were seen among female newcomers and previously unemployed participants (2020 evaluation, cited via Learning Curves).

The mentoring model has since been replicated in six other Canadian cities and in New Zealand, and is frequently cited by Canadian federal immigration policy as a best-practice example of employer-led integration of skilled newcomers.

Read the full analysis: https://triec.ca/