Overview

The Indigenous Internship Program provides recent Indigenous post-secondary graduates the opportunity to work as an entry-level intern with the Ontario Public Service (OPS).

Interns:

  • are paid a competitive salary
  • are offered a full-time contract for up to 1 year
  • develop their skills and gain valuable work experience
  • receive mentoring, coaching and learning opportunities
  • develop valuable professional contacts

Eligibility

You are eligible if you:

  • self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Métis or Inuit)
  • graduated from a college or university with a diploma, degree or post-graduate certificate within the past five years

Self-identification

The OPS is committed to giving Indigenous graduates equitable access and opportunity to employment in the Ontario government. In order to ensure the Indigenous Internship Program recruits candidates from the intended recipients (i.e. Indigenous post-secondary graduates) self-identification of Indigenous heritage is necessary. To achieve the program goals and ensure that our recruitment practices are fair, open and transparent, it is necessary that only those individuals who self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Métis or Inuit) will be considered for this position.

  • During the online application in-take process, you will be asked to confirm your identify as an Indigenous person, as follows: Are you an Indigenous person:
    • Yes (First Nations)
    • Yes (Métis)
    • Yes (Inuk)
    • No

For the purposes of the Indigenous Internship Program, the term Indigenous is used in reference to the legal definition provided in Section 35(2) of the Canadian Constitution, which defines Indigenous (Aboriginal) peoples as Indian (First Nations), Métis or Inuit.

Types of jobs

We offer a wide range of Indigenous internship positions in the following areas:

  • communications
  • financial management
  • human resources
  • Indigenous relations
  • policy
  • program and service delivery

Positions may vary depending on the participating ministries.

Current opportunities – apply now!

Visit our Indigenous Internship Opportunities job board to submit an application today! (Opens in a new tab).

Information collection

The information that you provide for the purpose of this competition, and the results from this competition, may be used in identifiable format by designated representatives in the OPS to fill other internship opportunities in the OPS, and public sector organizations where Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) provides administrative services. Further, We only use your information in the following ways:

  • ensuring you are eligible to apply for the posted position
  • evaluating the effectiveness of our outreach and recruitment, reporting on the success of the program or to suggest improvements to our program
  • contacting you to find out if you are interested in participating in a data survey, specific program opportunities or other offerings available to people in the Indigenous Internship Program. If we contact you, it will be confidential and your participation is voluntary
  • tracking the enterprise-wide hiring and retention of Indigenous persons and assessing recruitment and retention priorities for Indigenous staff in the OPS

All information will be protected in accordance with the principles of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.