Humber College and RBC Collaboration Strengthened to Provide Career Opportunities for International Students

Humber College and RBC have scaled their relationship to provide more career opportunities for international students following the initiative’s first-year success.

In 2022, RBC’s Payments and Trade Operations team (PTO) and Humber College’s Global Business Management (GBM) program began a relationship that has provided an increasing number of international students the opportunity to accelerate their careers in Canada. A program that initially granted GBM students an immersive learning experience within the Canadian banking sector has now grown immensely giving students the opportunity to join RBC’s Payments and Trade Operations group for summer 2023.

This collaboration was founded when Kalpana Pareek, Professor, Longo Faculty of Business, identified a common challenge among her students, most of which enrolled as international learners. What is the best way to jumpstart their careers without Canadian professional experience? In taking note of this question, Pareek connected with a former colleague and Vice President of RBC’s Payment & Trade Operations, Mike Pavkovic. The two came together to launch this venture that has shown exponential growth since its inception last year.

Now in its sophomore year, the initiative has grown by over 500%, providing additional international students the opportunity to gain new skills, expand their network, and get the rewarding experiences they need to kick-start their careers.  

Last year’s inaugural group laid the foundation for the program’s launch. In joining RBC, the cohort of students proved eager and willing to learn, step up, and take on new challenges. Being impressed by their work, RBC provided the students with full-time positions towards the end of their term.

“Here at RBC, we recognize the strength that exists within the diversity of our teams. By tapping into Canada’s rich source of highly skilled global talent and partnering with Humber, we not only get to assist in building the next generation of talent, but we also get the opportunity to help graduating students start to build their careers in a safe and supportive environment,” Pavkovic says.

Following its first-year success, RBC was excited to continue the initiative. In March 2023, RBC co-hosted a networking event with Pareek at Humber to bring awareness to the growing initiative, featuring hiring managers from RBC’s PTO team and four students from last year’s cohort. Through the event, GBM students had the unique opportunity to network directly with industry leaders and gain additional insight from their peers.

As a result of the networking session, RBC will now be providing a multitude of GBM graduates with the opportunity to work in various roles throughout its PTO teams, giving them the proper experience to inevitably secure permanent positions within the industry. 

Humber College and RBC coming together once again to scale the project, will continue to offer students valuable personal and professional development opportunities. This will help students build upon their skills and increase their profile while also fostering future opportunities to grow Canada’s untapped talent through increasingly innovative solutions. 

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