Challenges and Solutions
Challenges:
Integration challenges include:
- Insufficient knowledge of Canadian infrastructure and culture i.e. how to acquire housing, navigate the City, make use of services, etc.
- Linguistic hurdles, even for those who have some proficiency in English will not necessarily have mastered Canadian jargon, conversationally or professionally.
- Poverty.
- Traditional gender roles relating to new immigrants' country of origin may hold some immigrant men or women back due to lack of familiarity of human rights practices in Canada. These individuals may not know how to ask for what they want, appear to unknowing Canadians as unsure and content with secondary roles.
Employment challenges are:
- Lack of recognition of linguistic proficiency, foreign education, work experience and professional credentials.
- Language, unfamiliarity with spoken and written English, as well as the business-specific jargon.
- Intimidation by new workplace culture reliant on self-promotion (who you know) and networking, a self-managed career is a new concept for many.
- Incorrect interpretation of behaviour of Canadian employers and co-workers, not knowing how to behave at work.
- Unfamiliarity with how profession is practiced in Canada and with the computer software used
- Lack of Canadian work experience.
- Poverty (impacts ability to dress the part and to get to work if not easily accessible by public transportation).
- Inconsistent assessment of foreign education credentials and former job titles for comparability leading to underemployment
- Not knowing how profession is practiced in Canada makes it difficult for the immigrant to describe work history and experience in a way that is relevant to and understandable by Canadian recruiters and decision makers.
- Lack of knowledge of Canadian workplace culture make it difficult for an immigrant candidate to do well in a behaviour based interview.
Solutions:
Foreign education can be assessed for comparability with the Canadian education system by International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS). For more information contact: www.employment.alberta.ca/Immigration/4512.html. This service provides reviews of transcripts and course descriptions of accredited foreign universities and colleges for authenticity, length of study, content and function and will issue a statement of comparability. Not all licensed professions or trades recognize IQAS assessments, though many do.
Others, like the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers provide assessment services www.engineerscanada.ca/e/pr_education_2_inst.cfm.
For trades, Apprenticeship and Industry Training will assess foreign training and credentials to help immigrants become certified trades people www.tradesecrets.org.
English as a second language training or ESL is provided by many institutions. Some of these include:
If the person's accent when speaking English is difficult to understand, accent reduction training is provided by Maple Leaf Academy. A pronunciation program for speakers of English as a second language has been developed as a self-help guide (workbook and 4 audio CDs) called Accent On Canadian English, see www.AccentOnCanadianEnglish.com.
A number of organizations provide education and help for an immigrant in understanding the Canadian workplace culture and how the job market works. These include:
- Calgary Catholic Immigration Society or CCIS is an immigrant settlement and integration agency that provides skills for work training in a number of professions, trades and occupations. CCIS also provides employment and placement services located under the "Business, Employment and Training Services" link on the CCIS website: www.ccis-calgary.ab.ca.
- Centre for Newcomers, an immigrant-serving agency providing skills for work training and employment workshops for immigrants seeking employment: www.centrefornewcomers.ca.
- Calgary Immigrant Women's Association or CIWA helps immigrant women experience the Calgary workplace by placing them in Companies as volunteers. The CIWA hosts networking events and provides workplace counselling for clients: www.ciwa-online.com.
- Bow Valley College has work experience programs in engineering and other disciplines: www.bowvalleycollege.ca.
Immigrant-serving agencies often can help an immigrant get work clothes and a transit pass.
Companies seeking workers should contact one or more of these organizations for referrals or access to immigrants with specific skills.
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