Vancouver-based language and technology start-up Globalme.net is offering paid internships to help newly arrived refugees from Syria find jobs.
Erik de Vries, the marketing manager at Globalme, says at the beginning of the year, news of the refugee crisis developing in Syria motivated the small team at the company to find a way that they could help.
“We saw the refugee crisis and we thought how can we do something and how can we do something a little bit more than just raising some money or doing a financial thing.”
The idea to create internships for newcomers was born and Globalme reached out to MOSAIC, a non-profit organization that provides support to refugees, for help connecting with potential candidates.
As a new, fast-growing company, Globalme is looking to expand but its focus on emerging technologies also meant that it was looking for interns with a specific professional profile.
Mr. de Vries says the company was looking for “anyone qualified, higher educated, proficient in English. People that are coming from the language industry or technology industry like engineers, software developers, linguists, translators.”