Path For Skilled Immigrants

A new year has started, time to re-assess where we are, take new decisions and start fresh!

Are you a foreign trained cook or chef? Do you love the idea of working for restaurants or hotels?

Many of us grew up with the idea that a career was for life: you go to university or college, learn a profession or occupation, get a job in a good company and with some effort, time and luck, you’ll get promoted up the career ladder until is time to retire.

There are over 100 trades in Canada. In British Columbia,  the Industry Training Authority (ITA) regulates and manages programs for trades including the 49 which are Red-Seal.

If you are a Registered Nurse, Licensed Practical Nurse or Registered Psychiatric Nurse who graduated and practiced outside of Canada, you need to apply to the National Nursing Assessment Services or NNAS in order to be able to work as such in Canada.

As an internationally trained nurse, you may find that your education and experience are not immediately accepted in Canada. Depending on where and when you took your courses, whether you have enough experience and your level of English, the process to become a registered nurse in BC can take a really long time (and money). I will write about the path for becoming a registered nurse in my next article.

"As a landed new immigrant, I had difficulty finding a job aligned with my education and work experience. I was frustrated and didn’t know how to kick start again my career in Canada. I contacted Filipino Canadian Construction Society (FCCS) and requested to be mentored. I asked what are the options for me to be a registered professional engineer or an applied science technologist.

In my last post, I summarized the available alternatives for internationally trained professionals in the education sector. In this post, I am sharing two usual options: Early Childhood Education, and Kindergarten to Grade 12 teacher.

Depending on your educational background and experience, finding a job in the educational sector in Canada may prove to be very easy…or very challenging. In most cases, you may need to upgrade your skills. The first step is to determine to what level your background matches best:

As an internationally trained engineer, finding a job in engineering does not necessarily mean that one has to become a PEng or professionally licensed engineer. The most important step is to get into the door of the engineering industry. How? Through related jobs such as engineering technician, technologist, etc (see story in CFNet entitled "Alternative Pathways for Engineers").

Cristy Solano, who worked as an engineer in the Philippines, came to Vancouver, BC in 2000 with her husband and daughter. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Bicol University College of Engineering in Legazpi City.

If you have engineering education and experience from the Philippines, you can pursue a job that utilizes these skills in Canada, and not have to resort to taking totally unrelated survival jobs - like cleaning floors or working as night clerks - jobs that waste your talent and skills.

Many immigrants think that having their credentials evaluated means they can work in their profession in Canada as they did in their home countries. Unfortunately, this is not true. However, having your credentials evaluated is the first step towards working in your profession.