How We Support Our Young Professionals
We understand our young professionals want to build careers and communities that last. Join us and be a part of our award-winning, multi-disciplinary environment, including civil engineers, technologists, landscape architects, technicians and project managers.
Binnie strives to provide our early career stage team members with programs and resources to help them develop professionally and personally into our future leaders.
Co-op Programs
Our Engineering Co-op Program provides undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to gain valuable work experience before they graduate.
As a student, you can make an impact by helping to develop solutions that people use every day in our community.
Financial assistance towards tuition/textbooks is offered to Coop students who have committed to return for subsequent work terms and/or return to full-time positions after graduation. This helps ensure that we continue to develop our talent from within.
Young Professionals Committee
Our Young Professionals Committee (YPC) provides professional development, and social events that establish opportunities for the next generation of Binnie leaders to help each other develop, learn and grow. The Binnie YPC is an organized group, that targets specific social and professional development events each year, and encourage member participation in industry associations.
The YPC was formed to bring together Binnie’s YP’s in an organized forum. They assist in the company’s continued success in being recognized as an employer of choice for new and recent graduates, providing a space where YP’s can express their opinions, suggestions, and concerns with one another.
We do this by facilitating:
- Professional Development events – career sharing series events, LinkedIn Learning series events, discussions with Binnie’s senior leadership team, events to learn about different teams or projects within Binnie, ACEC-BC events and conferences
- Social activities – scavenger hunt, holiday photo bingo, social cocktail hour/beer tasting
- Community initiatives – shoreline cleanup, volunteer mentorship opportunities through post-secondary institutions, participation as a Binnie Ambassador at post-secondary industry professional events
Fostering Development
At Binnie, we are lifelong learners who recognize the value of ongoing continuous development throughout our careers. We are very proud to offer the following programs to support our staff as they grow in their career at Binnie:
- EGBC Accredited Employer Program – We are an EGBC Accredited Employer. Binnie’s program has been recognized for providing a work environment where Trainees (EIT’s) can obtain the required training and experience on their path towards registration as a Professional Engineer. The program uses internal application reviewers to fast-track the evaluation of new P.Eng. applications by Binnie’s EITs. By taking part in this program, individuals pursuing their P.Eng. may find the process accelerated to 2-3 weeks, instead of around 4 months. We have already had 20 employees become registered Professional Engineers in our first 3 years in the program.
- Mentoring program – Our mentoring program pairs experienced employees with those in the earlier stages of their career to create meaningful connections and support professional development. This is an opportunity to share skills, knowledge, and experience to facilitate each of their own personal and professional development and growth.
The most successful mentoring relationship exists when both mentor and mentee are committed to learning from each other, contributing and working to keep communication lines open, and facilitate a respectful and trusting relationship. We aim to provide resources that will orient our young professionals to the program and provide them with helpful tips and resources to ensure a successful partnership
- Clubs focused on furthering our growth – our community at Binnie is all about getting together and learning! Our Binnie Banters Club was created to help team members learn and become more comfortable with public speaking and leadership skills. Our Book Club encourages continued professional development through reading. The cost of books is covered by Binnie through education allowance.
Providing Support
Binnie is pleased to offer the additional following programs to support our staff as they seek to add to their credentials and or certifications:
- Education Allowance – The purpose of Binnie’s Education Allowance is to encourage our team to participate in continued learning and development. Team members can claim their annual education allowance for educational courses, exams, workshops, and seminars/webinars.
- Tuition Assistance – Binnie hires many Diploma graduates, some of whom return to school to complete their degree after working with us for their first year. Binnie funds half of the tuition for young employees who choose to return to school for the additional two years to complete the Degree program.
Top Employer Awards
We are a smart and accomplished organization, but we check our egos at the door. We work hard and work smart, but always make time for check-ins with every level of our team. Our people-focused culture drives us and for this, we are continually recognized as a Top Employer in Canada.
