Following 15th excellent year in 2018

 

SUMMERSIDE – Dec. 7, 2018 – Following the recent 15th anniversary celebration of its PERCÉ internship program, RDÉE Prince Edward Island is already starting to recruit PEI postsecondary students for its 16th season of paid internships next summer.

Thirty participants are being sought to return to the Island to work with a PEI employer that works in the student’s field of studies for 10 to 12 weeks.

Bonnie Gallant, executive director of RDÉE Prince Edward Island (the organization that manages the program), officially launched the recruiting period Thursday, Dec. 6, during the organization’s annual Christmas celebration.

“Last summer, we hosted 31 students in the program. The interns as well as their employers all reported that they’d greatly appreciated and benefitted from their internships,” she said. “If our excellent repatriation rate maintains itself, more than 80 per cent of these young people will eventually settle permanently on the Island.

It is first 15 years, PERCÉ hosted 287 interns.

Program supervisor Stéphane Blanchard notes that participants will also benefit from a full week of orientation and training before getting down to work in their internships.

“We get them to explore and rediscover their home province, we bring them on tours of businesses related to their field of studies and we help them establish important contacts,” he adds. “We help them to realize that it is quite possible to have a worthwhile life and career right here on PEI and that they don’t necessarily have to go to Ontario or Alberta to work in their field of studies.”

The development officer therefore invites all qualifying young people who are interested in participating in the program to visit the website www.percepe.ca to obtain more details and to fill out an online application form. Application deadline is March 31, 2019. It should be noted that bilingualism will be considered an asset.

Program managers will evaluate all applications and, thanks to a predetermined scoring system, will choose the 30 most deserving candidates. Once the participants are chosen, the coordinator will help them find an appropriate work location. The intern will receive the same salary that any beginner in this field would be paid.

“We are also calling on parents of university and college students from PEI to relay the message to their children that we’re looking for participants,” adds Blanchard.

In regard to employers, in addition to receiving a financial incentive to help cover salary costs, they also receive the services of an enthusiastic young person who has acquired the most recently required skills in their industry and who is ready and eager to learn.

“We are therefore inviting employers interested in hiring an intern to fill out an application form on the website www.percepe.ca or to contact us at 902-370-7333, Ext. 402,” Blanchard concludes.

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CUTLINE: PERCÉ assistant coordinator Carol Richard, RDÉE PEI president Martin Marcoux and executive director Bonnie Gallant officially launched the recruiting campaign for PERCÉ 2019 during the organization’s annual Christmas party Dec. 6 in Summerside. All students interested in participating must register no later than March 31.

 

 

For more information:
Stéphane Blanchard
PERCÉ program supervisor
RDÉE Prince Edward Island
(902) 370-7333, ext. 402
stephane@rdeeipe.org