'Like a guiding light': Talent Pathways continues to open doors to Dalhousie

The Talent Pathways program has been successfully providing temporary career opportunities at Dal since 2018. The program connects equity-deserving folks with  short-term job opportunities to help them gain beneficial work experience and test diverse professional roles, with the goal of career advancement at Dal.

The program aims to eliminate employment barriers for individuals who identify as a member of an equity-deserving group. Dalhousie defines equity-deserving groups as Indigenous persons (especially Mi’kmaq), persons of Black/African descent (especially African Nova Scotians), and members of other racialized groups, persons with disabilities, women, and persons identifying as members of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities.

Aligning with the Inclusive Excellence pillar of the university’s strategic plan, Third Century Promise, Talent Pathways works to further enhance the Dal community's diversity and to help achieve full employment equity for all faculty and staff.

Talent Pathways has short-term job opportunities, both hybrid and on-site across Halifax and Truro campuses. The openings available include postings to different assignment categories such as office administration, information technology services, human resources, customer service, data entry, campus security, and various skilled trades, among others.

Connecting talent

Prashant Mehta, administrator/people & culture manager in the Faculty of Open Learning and Career Development, joined Dal in September 2022 through a temporary position available through Talent Pathways. He has since secured a term position that began in February 2023.

“Dalhousie is one of the preferred employers in the city,” says Mehta. “I was a new immigrant when I heard about Talent Pathways. While I come with sufficient experience as well as education for a suitable job I realized that things do work differently here.

It’s an amazing program, especially for new immigrants and racialized people,” adds Mehta. “With its intent of supporting racialized people, Talent Pathways is like a guiding light to all those who come with professional work experience but struggle to find a meaningful opportunity to showcase their professional worthiness.

I feel that the core objective of Talent Pathways is about practicing EDIA and not only talking about it,” Prashant added. “I don’t know any other organization that offers such an initiative.”

Hiring through Talent Pathways

Talent Pathways is the university’s preferred method for hiring temporary employees. If you are a manager, you are encouraged to reach out to Talent Pathways at talent.pathways@dal.ca before contacting external staffing agencies.

Did you know that Talent Pathways can offer a more competitive salary than external agencies? Agencies take a cut of the wage you are paying to cover their administrative costs. This cut is typically 25 - 30 per cent of the hourly wage you are paying, which often results in the employee making just above minimum wage.

The Talent Pathways Advisor has attended many job fairs and made connections with community organizations, and as a result more than 600 people with varied skills sets and job experience have applied to the program. Applications come from people with experience in administration, project management, team leadership, student services, research, communications and marketing, IT, and human resources.

The Talent Pathways Advisor conducts interviews with promising candidates and reference checks before they are referred to hiring managers.

You can learn more about hiring through the Talent Pathways Program.