How UNB’s Faculty of Management Helps Students Become Part Of The Province’s Permanent Workforce
FREDERICTON – Every year, a stream of high-skill, high-talent individuals flow into New Brunswick. They arrive with a wealth of knowledge, experience, and qualifications — and these skills are further refined as they pursue their MBA degree at UNB Fredericton.
The international students who come to study in the province almost always love their time here. But, according to Darcy Crowe, many of these students ultimately seek employment in other regions of the country upon graduation.
Crowe is the experiential learning coordinator at UNB’s Faculty of Management.
She says international students sometimes bump up against barriers when they’re ready to enter New Brunswick’s job market. And if they can’t find work, they can’t stay.
“International students can have trouble finding work because they don’t always have a professional network,” she says. “In a small province like New Brunswick, being well connected to the business community is essential and opens doors to future opportunities. Gaining Canadian work experience with local industry is an important piece of that puzzle and encourages more international students to consider living and working in N.B. upon graduation.”
Angelisa Daly knows that all too well.
Daly, who graduated from UNB with an MBA in 2021, came from India to study in New Brunswick.
Daly has a massive family that’s spread out across the globe. She chose to study at UNB because it’s one of the few places where that family isn’t.
“I wanted to have success and do it all on my own. I wanted to start from scratch,” she says.
But Daly says coming to a new country without a network around her was tough.
“Obviously it’s quite overwhelming when you come to a completely new country,” she says.
That was especially true in the summer of 2020 when she began searching for summer internships.
Luckily for Daly, she got support from UNB, which helped her find an internship with UP + GO.
Daly says she gained a ton of valuable experience during her time with UP+GO, a social impact company that delivers leadership and self-discovery programs for high school girls and introduces them to New Brunswick women working in the areas of STEM, entrepreneurship, and leadership. Daly and her team built a strategy to have this program transition from in-person to virtual delivery due to the pandemic.
Successfully completing the project, she also formed important business connections there. Daly connected with her former employer and mentor, Cathy Simpson, around the time she graduated. When Daly told her she was looking for work, Simpson found a great fit in Daly for a role she was looking to fill at TechImpact, where Simpson is CEO.
Since then, Daly is a program manager at TechImpact, a private sector-led organization focused on building a vibrant and growing Atlantic Canadian economy by using technology to unlock the region’s potential. In her role as a program manager, she owns and leads an exciting new digital platform – CollabHub all set to launch this fall.
CollabHub connects you to talented New Brunswick solution providers and local job opportunities while keeping you up to date on the latest technology news and events. It will be a link to discover New Brunswick’s thriving tech ecosystem.
As Daly is actively preparing for this launch to be a success by managing stakeholders, marketing and selling, building metrics and milestones, she is also responsible to ensure once in operation, the platform is growing, building, and thriving. Her learning is immense, and the support and spirit of her team are what keeps her going!
She says she is grateful for where she is today and UNB played a role in helping her get there.
Crowe says Daly’s case is a perfect example of why it’s so important to help international students gain a foothold in the business community. Daly got a lift from the university to form meaningful connections in the business community and that helped her secure a job within the province.
This is why the faculty of management has teamed up with the Office of Experiential Education, Planet Hatch, and recently secured funding through New Brunswick’s Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour to help international students develop the networks they need to find work in New Brunswick.
Together, the organizations have developed a brand-new, graduate-level internship program that caters to international students and aims to reduce barriers and expand access to work-integrated learning opportunities within the province.
The program will place international students in UNB’s MBA program with companies in high-growth tech-based sectors like cybersecurity, digital health, and data analytics. The goal is to increase the retention of international students in New Brunswick and develop a highly skilled pipeline of business managers capable of driving growth and innovation.
Not only that, but students in the program will also get support from Planet Hatch through its Future of Work Skills Program. The program equips participants with the skills found in the most successful entrepreneurs, which also happen to be those attributes most wanted by employers.
That, Crowe says, will allow students to build skillsets and expand professional networks that will further ensure resiliency in this competitive marketplace.
Eligible employers who take part in the program will get a 75 percent wage subsidy support. And they get to benefit from a high-skilled worker who brings a wealth of knowledge and new perspectives to their organization.
Crowe points out that many students who come from abroad to study are already highly qualified and come to the table with far more than a simple bachelor’s degree in hand.
When you’re coming from a different country, particularly with a graduate-level program, you’re going to bring with you international business experience. Students in the MBA program come with one, if not multiple undergraduate degrees. These are highly skilled professionals that are arriving here and eager to work,” she says.
“Every single day, I’m working with international student talent, and I’m looking at resumes that are truly impressive. It’s really remarkable the amount of work that they put in before coming here to study.”
Crowe says enrollment in UNB’s MBA program has skyrocketed over the past few years, and this is largely due to an increase in international student enrollment. Presently, upwards of 70 percent of graduate students within the Faculty of Management are arriving from abroad.
Those students represent so much potential for New Brunswick, it makes sense to do everything possible to support them and entice them to stay.
Daly agrees. She says one of the best parts of studying in New Brunswick was the support she received at every turn.
“It’s so great to be in that supportive ecosystem and know that everyone wants you to truly succeed. That helped me excel and reach my potential, and I’m so happy that other students will now get the same kind of guidance and support.”
This story is sponsored by the Faculty of Management at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.