Industry Link

About Industry Link

Preparing the talent of today for the industry of tomorrow. Industry Link is an academia-to-industry bridge initiative dedicated to enhancing the connection between graduate students and health science companies. We are developing novel programming and educational infrastructure to cultivate and drive the future health science industry of Ontario. There are currently not enough academic jobs available for the outflow of graduate students. In fact, fewer than a quarter of current PhD students are estimated to end up in full-time, tenured faculty positions in Canada, forcing the majority to seek employment in other countries or non-academic industries. Creating the proper infrastructure to transition students from academia into industry will be essential to retaining and utilizing talent that took years of schooling to nurture. Industry Link has designed four main programs to date that provide both students and companies opportunities to connect first-hand, form partnerships, and benefit mutually: 1. Company Tours – Small groups of select graduate students will participate in organized trips to non-academic, health science companies and organizations. 2. Part-Time Internships – This novel internship program may be run in conjunction with the student’s academic research, thus overcome resistance that graduate supervisors previously had for full-time internships. We believe this will increase the pool of eligible talent for companies to select from. 3. Industry Link Consulting – Graduate students will be skill-matched with health science companies to solve real-world, technical cases. Graduate students will be assembled in multi-disciplinary teams to provide cost-effective consulting for partnered companies. 4. Industry Link Careers Conference – This multi-university conference will provide a forum for up to 200 graduate students, faculty, and industry professionals to learn from one another, discuss the future of the industry, and network.

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