Kick-starting a career in Southern Ontario through Mitacs Enterprise

Gurpreet Sandhu fulfills career goal of working in Canada after being hired by his partner company

After finishing a diploma in Electronics Engineering Technology from Sheridan College, Gurpreet was keen to put his skills and education to use. However, with limited job experience, landing a full-time position proved difficult. After learning about Mitacs Enterprise, Gurpreet partnered with Mississauga-based Avnan Electro, a global supplier of electrical components. The six-month internship was instrumental in providing him with the industry connections and experience he was looking for. Gurpreet is now working full-time as an Electronics Engineering Technologist at Avnan.

Launched in February 2012, Mitacs Enterprise is a competitive six-month internship and business mentorship program that gives graduates of science, technology, engineering and math disciplines an opportunity to work with small-to-medium-sized companies (SMEs) in Southern Ontario. Interns receive invaluable experience by working with a company that can benefit from their specialized technical and business management training while the SME’s access a pool of talented and trained personnel that can help them meet the demands of their business environment.

“As a small company, we’re constantly looking for ways to resourcefully meet our aggressive growth targets and provide innovative products and sophisticated solutions to our customers. Through the Mitacs Enterprise program, we were able to meet the current demands of our open projects, increase our Engineering department’s resources, and most importantly, to train and mentor a new employee extensively, positioning them for a continued role on our team” says Katie Hopkins, Manager of Human Resources at Avnan.

For Gurpreet, the combination of business skills training and senior mentorship from both Mitacs Enterprise workshops and Avnan colleagues provided him with the skills and confidence he needed to enter the job market as a foreign graduate student. “When I started implementing some of the skills I had acquired over the last six-months, I realized the internship had given me the confidence to market myself as a well-rounded and valuable employee. I know I will use the skills and knowledge I have acquired to build a long and successful career in Canada.”

Mitacs thanks the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario for their support of the Entreprise research internship in this story. Across Canada, the Entreprise program also receives support from Alberta Innovates, the Government of British Columbia, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Prince Edward Island, the Government of Quebec, the Government of Saskatchewan and Research Manitoba.

Do you have a business challenge that could benefit from a research solution? If so, contact Mitacs today to discuss partnership opportunities: BD@mitacs.ca

Mitacs Team

Mitacs’s website content is created by people throughout our organization, united in their passion for innovation and eager to share their perspectives with others in the innovation ecosystem. 

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