TERVITA Visits CIES

The CIES Employment Skills Training Program has been running since 2009. Six Years, 24 intakes and more than 600 students later and EST@CIES is still going strong. One of the reasons we are able to provide the top notch services that come with our programs is the relationships CIES has built and continues to build with the Calgary Community. One such example is Sarah Hernandez-Silva, Senior HR advisor for Tervita, one of North America's largest environmental service companies.

Sarah has been donating her time to CIES as a quest speaker, once a term with our EST classes for more than 2 years. She spends up to three hours with our EST students, lecturing on job readiness and expectations from a Calgary employer's perspective. Another vital part of her time with our clients is the end-of-term mock interview sessions, where Sarah takes the time to interview each and every student individually and provides immediate feedback on their performance.

Sarah immigrated to Canada with her family from El Salvador at just five years old and recalls the services Canada provided to her mother upon arrival. The help her mother received has now come full circle, as Sarah now provides newcomers to Canada with guidance and coaching on how to best adapt to the Canadian workplace.  It is people like Sarah that make CIES possible. We salute her long term service and Tervita for providing us with her expert knowledge. See you next term Sarah!