OTTAWA, Nov. 5, 2015 /CNW/ - On the heels of announcing the successful placement of 165 new graduates in Canadian Bio-economy jobs for 2015, BioTalent Canada today announced the creation of a new employee award: "The 2015 'Catalyst' Award for Biotechnology Graduates," a $1,000 prize which will be awarded to the young employee who has contributed most significantly to their Canadian biotechnology employer in 2015.
Biotechnology employers are invited to submit applications, telling stories about their most recent hires - how these young scientists and entrepreneurs have enhanced innovation, and made substantial contributions to their companies.
The 2015 Catalyst Award program will accept entries until January 31, 2016. Entries will only be accepted from employers and new graduate employees who participated in the Career Focus wage subsidy program sometime in 2015. Eligible entrants must be employees of the company at the time of application. Entries will be judged on the basis of the new graduate employee who has made significant contributions to: company culture, a company's sense of innovation, achievement of a team or company business objective and overcoming a business challenge.
Finalists and the award winner will be announced in February and March of 2016, respectively.
"With the success of the national and provincial Career Focus wage subsidy programs, we feel it's our duty to broadcast some of these great biotech success stories," said Rob Henderson, President and CEO of BioTalent Canada. "Our interactions with employers have indicated that enhanced access to the youth market in Canada has been a great advantage for them and we want Canadians to realize how crucial young people are to our industry," he said.
Earlier this year, BioTalent Canada released its labour market report for new graduates entering the biotechnology industry, Opening The Door, which shed light on the advanced post-secondary educational levels of respondents. 35% of all new graduates who responded had completed a bachelor's degree; 30% a master's degree; 5% a doctoral degree and 5% a post-doctoral degree. The remaining 25% of all participants had completed a college diploma or Quebec Diploma of Collegial Studies (DEC).
"The bio-economy has among the highest education levels of any industry in Canada," said Rob Henderson. BioTalent Canada's partner, Life Sciences Ontario, in its 2015 sector report cited the unemployment rate in Ontario alone to be 18.9 % for young graduates of post-secondary biotechnology programs. "Biotech companies, most of them with less than 50 employees, need assistance like the Career Focus program to tap into this strategically advantageous labour market," he said.
More information and the application form to the Catalyst Award are available at biotalent.ca/2015Catalyst
About Career Focus
The Career Focus Program is a wage subsidy program funded by the federal Youth Employment Strategy, for bio-economy employers to hire the talent they need and for recent graduates to gain the work experience they require – by subsidizing the salary of a recent graduate. For more information on how this program has impacted Canada's bio-economy and how biotech business and new grads can apply to the program, visit www.biotalent.ca/success.
About BioTalent Canada
BioTalent Canada is the HR partner of Canada's bio-economy. As an HR expert and national non-profit organization, BioTalent Canada focuses on building partnerships and skills for Canada's bio-economy to ensure the industry has access to job-ready people. Through projects, research and product development BioTalent Canada connects employers with job seekers, delivers human resource information and skills development tools so the industry can focus on strengthening Canada's biotech business. For more information please visit biotalent.ca.
SOURCE BioTalent Canada
Fiorella Jansen-Nicorescu, Marketing & Communications Manager, BioTalent Canada, 613-235-1402 ext. 229, [email protected]
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