Canada's Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has announced that the Young Newcomers Internship Program (YNIP), introduced in 2008 by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) as a pilot project, will now be a permanent program. He made the announcement at the graduation ceremony of the first year's participants.

As part of CIC's goal to facilitate the integration of newcomers, the Young Newcomers Internship Program provides new Canadians with the opportunity to gain vital Canadian work experience through internships at Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

In its first year, the four-month paid internship program was offered to 12 government-sponsored refugees from Sudan, Burma, Somalia, Burundi, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan.
They were placed in different branches of the department, learning about government operations through job-shadowing. At the end of the program, managers were so impressed by their interns that seven of them were hired full-time by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

"The intent was to increase the employability of the interns, not necessarily to guarantee them jobs," said CIC's manager of recruitment, Jason Buccino. "There was nothing but praise for the hard work ethic and the type of work they put out."

The first participants of the YNIP were selected through World University Services of Canada. They have all graduated from a Canadian university with a bachelor's or master's degree.

"The success of this program shows that when you have faith in newcomers and give them a chance, you see how much hard work they will do to prove themselves and make a meaningful contribution to Canadian society," says Nasir Maimanagy who partook in the YNIP.

"Employers get the benefit of a diverse workforce of well-educated, dedicated people, and for the employees, it's the opportunity of a lifetime. They want to make the most of it."

CIC will be offering a new round of 10 internships to newcomers in the fall of 2009.