'Welcoming so much talent': Hundreds attend 4th annual London Newcomer Day
Jey Jain, an up-and-coming musician from India, was entertaining the crowd Saturday at ‘Newcomer Day’ in London, Ont.
Since arriving in the Forest City a few years ago, he’s been in school and working with the London Music Office to land opportunities.
"Networking is everything,” says Jain.
“That's what has been ingrained in our brains. Get out there and just like put yourself out there, talk to people, show them your music and if you're if you're actually good, they'll give you a chance."
A woman takes video of musician Jey Jain during a performance at London Newcomer Day in London, Ont. on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)
Over 600 people attended the Newcomer Day event at RBC Place. They were given the chance to interact and engage with 76 employers, service organization booths and settlement and post-secondary organizations.
"We're welcoming hundreds of newcomers to our city each year,” says Kinga Koltun, senior coordinator, community engagement with the City of London.
“We're at about 24 per cent of newcomers overall and between 2016 and 2021 with the Census welcomed over 19,000 newcomers into our city. We can see how diverse our city is becoming with diversity in food, culture, languages and talent.”
Among that talent is dentist Felipe Gomez and architect Camilo Maya who arrived in London two months ago from Columbia.
Dentist Felipe Gomez (Left) and Architect Camilo Maya came to London, Ont. from Columbia two months ago, and are looking for work in London, Ont. on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)
"We actually had a great life back in our country,” says Maya.
“But the expectation for living in another country, and speaking another language, we decided Canada is the country for that.”
Gomez then chimed in with, “we wanted to try the seasons too.”
The Elgin-Middlesex-Oxford Workforce Planning and Development Board estimates there are 5,700 job opportunities in the London region.
A man looks at the job board during London Newcomer Day in London, Ont. on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)
“With the arrival of Volkswagen, WSIB, Amazon and a host of other employers, this is a thriving place to be,” says Kapil Lakhotia, president and CEO of the London Economic Development Corporation.
“Today we have so much newcomer talent in the room, so we're excited to showcase our region's growth and opportunities there to a wide variety of audiences. We have people looking for technology positions, manufacturing, finance, accounting, and the list goes on and on. It's a very exciting day to talk to companies and people about opportunities.”
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