TORONTO, ON - May 06, 2015 /CNW/ - Tonight, the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) is hosting a celebration of the Professional Immigrant Networks program.

The event will also celebrate Scotiabank's renewed three-year sponsorship of the program.

Professional Immigrant Networks (PINs) is a network of professional associations from across the Greater Toronto Area, funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and sponsored by Scotiabank since 2011.

The event will showcase stories of collaboration, launch a new video about the associations and introduce the reinvigorated Professional Immigrant Networks website.

These associations help immigrants looking for work to match their qualifications by accessing job-search support, mentoring and networking opportunities. The leaders who run these associations have been on similar journeys and have firsthand knowledge of what it's like to search for work as a newcomer.

"We saw more and more of these associations springing up, and we wanted to support this innovative, immigrant-led work," said Margaret Eaton, Executive Director, Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council. "We wanted to partner with them and help them do what they do better, and so the PINs program was born."

Professional Immigrant Networks empowers associations by offering them leadership development opportunities and connecting leaders to service providers and employers. Professional Immigrant Networks leaders are volunteers, so the opportunity to come together and share expertise, experiences and resources is invaluable.

"As Canada's international bank, we appreciate just how important newcomers are to both our communities and to our workforce," said Puneet Mann, Scotiabank's Co-Lead of Multicultural Banking. "We are proud to support the PINs associations as they work to create opportunities for their members to find meaningful employment and build stronger communities in the process."

Tonight's event will be hosted by PINs leader Amal Ratnayake, from CIMA Canada. He said, "The resources made available by the PINs network are extremely useful to our newcomer members and the professional networking opportunities provided are invaluable. I believe that together, we can make life easier for internationally trained professionals that follow us in making Canada their home."

For more information, visit online at TRIEC.ca, networksforimmigrants.ca and follow on Twitter @TRIEC. Join the conversation by using #TRIECPINs.

About TRIEC
The Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) brings leaders together who are committed to helping immigrants and employers succeed. TRIEC believes that when immigrants prosper, we all do. They help employers make the most of the culturally diverse workforce. They help immigrants connect to employment that fully leverages their skills and talents. TRIEC does this by partnering with organizations from across all sectors in the Greater Toronto area, because they believe that a collaborative approach achieves the greatest impact.

About PINs
PINs is a TRIEC program that increases the capacity of professional immigrant associations to connect their members to employment. PINs associations are volunteer-led, member-based organizations with an employment focus, run by and for skilled immigrants. TRIEC provides a platform for association leaders to share learnings, leverage skills, access resources and tools, build their profile and collaborate with employers, service providers and others stakeholders. PINs is funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and sponsored by Scotiabank.

About Scotiabank 
Scotiabank is Canada's international bank and a leading financial services provider in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Central America, and parts of Asia. We are dedicated to helping our 21 million customers become better off through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking. With a team of more than 86,000 employees and assets of $852 billion (as at January 31, 2015), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto (TSX: BNS) and New York Exchanges (NYSE: BNS). Scotiabank distributes the Bank's media releases using CNW. For more information, please visit www.scotiabank.com and follow us on Twitter @ScotiabankNews.