ApprenticeSearch.com is powered by HIEC, a not-for-profit social enterprise with a focus on partnership, mentorship and workforce development.
HIEC is a not-for-profit social enterprise focused on partnership, mentorship, and workforce development.
For more than 36 years, HIEC has worked with educators, employers, and community partners to help young people explore careers, build skills, and transition successfully into the workforce.
Through innovative programs and services, HIEC leverages technology, advances community collaboration, and strengthens economic development while helping individuals pursue meaningful and fulfilling careers.
Supporting Youth Career Development
HIEC is committed to empowering young people in their career exploration and helping them navigate the complex decisions related to education, employment, and future opportunities.
By providing early exposure to careers, mentorship opportunities, and workforce development programs, HIEC helps young people build confidence, develop skills, and make informed decisions about their future pathways.
This work also supports youth well-being by helping individuals feel more confident about their future and the opportunities available to them.
Delivering Programs Across the Career Education Continuum
For over three decades, HIEC has developed and delivered programs that strengthen the career education continuum, supporting learners from early career awareness through to workforce entry.
Our programs range from:
- Elementary school career exploration initiatives
- Experiential learning opportunities for secondary students
- Mentorship and career awareness programs
- Workforce development and employment programs
HIEC’s diverse team brings together expertise in education, workforce development, program delivery, and technology to support innovative career development initiatives.
The Ontario Career Lab
Ontario Career Lab (OCL), powered by HIEC, delivers innovative programming that brings career exploration, career development, and career learning directly into classrooms and communities — helping students and lifelong learners build confidence, explore possibilities, and make informed, inspired choices about their futures.
The Ontario Career Lab extends HIEC’s 35-year legacy of connecting education and industry by focusing on the career development continuum — from early awareness to postsecondary and work transitions.
Through partnerships with educators, employers, and community organizations, OCL helps learners understand themselves, the world of work, and the pathways that connect the two.
Learn more at www.OntarioCareerLab.ca
Land Acknowledgement
As a national organization, HIEC honours and acknowledges the traditional and ancestral territories of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples across the country.
We recognize the diversity of Indigenous peoples and communities coast to coast, including over 600 First Nations Communities, four Inuit Nunangat regions comprising 53 Inuit communities, Métis Nations, settlements and regions, Treaties 1-11, 25 modern treaties, and all unceded territories.
We respect the historic and current relationship Indigenous peoples have to the land on which we live and work. We are committed to collaborating and establishing respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples by striving to practice reconciliation in our everyday lives, communities, and workplaces.
HIEC's head office is located in Burlington, Ontario. Burlington as we know it today is rich in history and modern traditions of many First Nations and the Métis. From the Anishinaabeg to the Haudenosaunee, and the Métis – our lands spanning from Lake Ontario to the Niagara Escarpment are steeped in Indigenous history.
The territory is mutually covered by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy, the Ojibway and other allied Nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. We would like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is part of the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit.
