The Conestoga Talent Hub is nominated for the Greater KW Chamber of Commerce 2025 Business Excellence Awards in the Community Builder of the Year category for providing life-long talent development support to Conestoga students and alumni, community job seekers and employers.
The 2025 Business Excellence Awards Gala, presented by Cowan Insurance Group, will recognize chamber members that made exceptional contributions to the betterment of the community through their leadership and involvement.
Community Builder of the Year is awarded to an outstanding business or organization that has supported charitable or not-for-profit organizations, demonstrated a vision of a better community and has taken steps to make it happen, practised good corporate citizenship, and made exceptional contributions by promoting community betterment.
The Conestoga Talent Hub is a one-stop virtual and in-person service and support hub for career and employment advising, co-op and work-integrated learning.
The Talent Hub assists students, alumni and community job seekers at all stages of their career and employment journey. For industry and community employers, it offers various services including mentorship, co-op experiences, job fairs and recruitment.
"Ontario is facing critical labour shortages across multiple industries, an increasing threat to the prosperity of communities throughout the province. The Conestoga Talent Hub has become indispensable to the local community by supporting a diverse pool of workers as they enter the workforce, adapting to the demands of industry today," said Alice Michaud, associate director of Talent Development & Career Services.
"The Conestoga Talent Hub actively contributes to the betterment of community across a broad continuum of employment, career and workforce development services based on community and industry collaboration and engagement. Using a holistic approach, Talent Hub provides a comprehensive suite of easily accessible support and referral services designed to address the challenges and complex needs of students, alumni and community job seekers," said Trish Weigel Green, vice-president, Students.
The Talent Hub, located at the Kitchener - Downtown campus, continues to respond to the needs of the region's most vulnerable workers by co-ordinating financial support available to eligible clients to pay for education through government funding; reducing barriers to employment by sourcing funding for work-related clothing, adaptive equipment, tools and equipment, emergency childcare, credential recognition, licensing fees and transportation; offering financial incentives to employers; ensuring industry access to a diverse pool of skilled talent needed to meet skills gaps; and supporting the integration of international talent into the local workforce.
Each year, it supports 6,300 stakeholders with career planning, employment preparation and job search assistance; provides recruitment strategy support for more than 1,500 employers; and co-ordinates 3,000 co-op work terms involving 1,300 employers and 12,000 work-integrated learning placements involving 2,000 host organizations,
Guided by a comprehensive employer relations strategy that ensures alignment with labour market needs, the Conestoga Talent Hub has a team of 96 employment specialists who contribute their time, talent and resources to ensure best-in-class service delivery and programming across the career development continuum.
Award recipients will be announced at the gala on March 20. Conestoga is sponsoring the Employee Engagement Award.
For more information
299 Doon Valley Drive
Kitchener Ontario
Canada N2G 4M4
www.conestogac.on.ca/
