Career Settlement Cafe

The Career Settlement Café is a popular program among Nepali immigrants residing in Ontario, which helps bridge the gap between relatively well-established immigrants and those seeking to expand their employment and self-employment opportunities. It is called Pragik Bhetghat Sabha (प्राज्ञिक भेटघाट) and is referred to as Prabas Talk. The main activities of Prabas Talk involve experience sharing, mentoring, and volunteer training through idea sharing. The module primarily focuses on experience sharing and identifying the best available resources provided by skilled and experienced community members to those seeking to fill specific gaps in ideas, skills, or knowledge. This module has been found highly effective at all levels of experience and expertise. 

Whether a community member is at the exploratory stage of starting their first venture in Ontario or already engaged but still seeking better settlement opportunities, this module serves perfectly. The end goal is to provide a forum called the 'Career Settlement Café' to facilitate steady and ongoing career growth and help individuals better settle into their dream careers. The underlying core principles are to create a professional network within the community that works together to help individual members be personally active, economically productive, and socially responsible, as anticipated by Canadian values and traditions. 

The Career Settlement Café initiates a networking opportunity called 'Chiya Paan Samaroha (CHIPS),' where interested and pre-screened individuals from the Nepali community are invited to participate. This event provides a platform to meet experienced and established resource persons. Initially, it breaks the ice and allows participants the opportunity to speak in their area of interest, contributing to the building of ongoing strong professional relationships. It can be utilized as an opportunity to exchange knowledge critical to career advancement and discuss relevant rules and regulations.

During a short meet-up, ideally, experience sharing leads to the exchange of various helpful and relevant resources. It becomes very productive when participants become well familiar with each other, and the session transitions into providing specific advice or directly answering the mentee's questions. The answers and advice provided by subject matter experts to mentees during the CHIPS session are found to be highly effective and helpful for their career development. 

In addition to career advancement and business topics, many social and settlement topics relevant to specific candidates as newcomers or new entrepreneurs can be discussed. More importantly, it will deliver positive energy, enthusiasm, and openness to all participants, motivating them for continuous success in their own career endeavors. CHIPS is a new initiative among Nepali immigrants in Ontario.

Until today, rare but very effective Café meet-ups have been held according to the convenience of targeted groups in Ontario, addressing issues such as the availability of mentors and resources for the session.