Young Talent Returning to Cape Breton
Guy Reid of Sydney, knows a thing or two about building a strong business with in-demand talent. His secret: Cape Breton graduates.
“The grads we hire are always from Cape Breton and usually it’s a person who wants to come back home and make a livelihood here,” says Reid, owner of Reid Physio, one of the only privately-owned physiotherapy clinics on the island. “We want to support those from our community who are returning and ultimately contributing to local economic growth.”
Hiring well-educated young people is good for the Cape Breton economy but, for Reid, it also makes good business sense.
“The graduates we’ve hired bring different skillsets, a different way of looking at things and a great attitude and work ethic,” he says. “They’re having a huge impact, and our clients, and our business, are benefiting.”
Brittany MacInnes, a Glace Bay native, completed her master’s in physiotherapy at Dalhousie in Halifax and wanted to return home. A job offer from Reid Physio was the deciding factor and she’s now one of three physiotherapists, seeing between 13 to 20 physio clients a day.
“At a private clinic like this I can treat my own patients and work independently. I also have access to great mentors that I can learn from,” says Brittany.
“I feel so lucky to have found full-time permanent work, and only a 20-minute commute from home.”
Brittany is practicing all the skills she picked up in university, including clinical reasoning and manual therapy.
The physio community in Nova Scotia is tight-knit, making it only a matter of time before Reid found out about a funding program that other clinics were using to hire grads.
GTO helps small businesses under 100 full-time employees, start-ups, social enterprises and non-profits hire recent grads for permanent, full-time jobs in Nova Scotia.
GTO offers 25% of a grad’s first year (35% if the grad is a member of a diversity group) and 12.5% of a grad’s second year salary to eligible employers in the province.
“The application process was simple and straight forward, and we were approved for funding to make a hire in no time,” says Reid.
About 600 employers in virtually every industry have hired more than 1,000 recent graduates across Nova Scotia with the support of GTO funding, including a number in communities across Cape Breton.
Learn more about how the GTO program can benefit your company. Applications are typically turned around within 5 business days.
