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Omar Yaqub

Gov of Sask Ireleand - 0 views

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    In December 2011 the unemployment rate in Ireland rose to 14.4 per.  In the wake of a global economic recession, the Irish Economic and Social Research Institute  estimates 75,000 Irish are expected to emigrate in 2012 as unemployment in the country  continues to rise.  The Irish Government has identified emigration as one part of the economic recovery plan.  The Government of Saskatchewan was approached by employers interested in actively recruiting  skilled workers in Ireland.  The Government of Saskatchewan administers the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program  (SINP).  The SINP is an economically-driven program that responds to the need of Saskatchewan  employers.  It allows the Province of Saskatchewan to nominate applicants who qualify under  criteria established by the province for permanent resident status.  The program offers the ability to select applicants whose skills and abilities best meet the needs  of employers; application processing times that are faster than other federal immigration classes;  and, assistance from Immigration Officers who are readily available to explain program  requirements and processes. 
Omar Yaqub

GOVERNMENT OF SASKATCHEWAN SUPPORTS LABOUR RECRUITMENT MISSION TO IRELAND - Government ... - 0 views

  • GOVERNMENT OF SASKATCHEWAN SUPPORTS LABOUR RECRUITMENT MISSION TO IRELAND Premier Brad Wall and Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration Minister Rob Norris will participate in a labour recruitment mission to Ireland in March 2012. The delegation will be comprised of Saskatchewan employers and supported by the Government of Saskatchewan. Immigration staff will support employers who are actively making job offers in Ireland at career fairs in Dublin (March 3-4) and Cork (March 7) where more than 9,000 qualified candidates in fields including trades and construction, engineering and health sciences are expected to attend. "The New Saskatchewan offers jobs, a high quality of life, and a welcoming environment to newcomers," Wall said. "We look forward to telling our story in Ireland. Immigration is helping sustain our economic momentum and enriching our cultural diversity." "There is a tremendous pool of qualified people in Ireland who are actively seeking opportunities abroad," Norris said. "The Irish Economic and Social Research Institute estimates 75,000 Irish are expected to emigrate in 2012 as unemployment in the country continues to rise. This mission will connect Saskatchewan employers with qualified candidates who are seeking to emigrate." Twenty-two employers have committed to participating in the mission with more than 275 vacancies on offer. Candidates who receive an offer of employment will work with immigration officers to apply to the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP). "With a record of economic growth, and one of the lowest unemployment rates in Canada, Saskatchewan is a place of opportunity," Norris said. "And we welcome these newcomers to discover the Saskatchewan advantage." -30- For more information, contact: Richelle Bourgoin Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration Regina Phone: 306-787-8153 Email: richelle.bourgoin@gov.sk.ca
Omar Yaqub

Backgrounder - Transitioning to the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Counci... - 0 views

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    Minister will be enacting regulations designating the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC) as the regulator of immigration consultants
Omar Yaqub

Reports || EEDC 2008 annual report - 0 views

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    Workforce DevelopmentThe shortage of skilled workers was unquestionably the mostimportant challenge faced by Edmonton industry in 2008. Inits third year, EEDC's Edmonton Workforce Connection (EWC)program continued in conjunction with industry and governmentto address regional labour challenges. EWC worked with industrystakeholders, immigrant-serving agencies, the City of Edmonton,educational institutions and Alberta Employment and Immigrationto launch the Edmonton Region Immigrant Employment Council.This organization was created to help address the underemploymentof skilled immigrants in the region.EWC also provided new opportunities for businesses and workersto connect. These included developing the Employers of Choicewebsite to highlight local employers, creating a link to WOWJobs that enabled companies to advertise job opportunities, andconnecting Edmonton employers to university career centresacross Canada.EWC has a new name - EEDC's Workforce Development Program- and new challenges. The focus of the program will be optimizingthe labour force to address a growing skills shortage that isdriven by an aging population, competition, innovation and newtechnologies. Alberta employers are reassessing their needs andthe future of their businesses in light of the economic slowdown.EEDC will continue to need blue and white-collar workers who areemployed to their maximum capacity to rebuild the economy. Productivity & InnovationIn 2008, EEDC made a strategic decision to be a leader inpromoting greater productivity through innovation in the Edmontonregion.In collaboration with the province and cities across Alberta, EEDChosted Innovative Manufacturing Works tours in Edmontonin October 2008. Thirty industry representatives visited threeEdmonton-area manufacturers, which are focused on continuallyrefining their processes to achieve peak efficiency. Events such asthese improve public awareness of the capability of local industryand encourage other firms to adopt be
Omar Yaqub

Outsider report card on Alberta's workforce strategy « Global Leadership Asso... - 0 views

  • vision statemen
  • 1. Unleashing innovation.2. Leading in learning.3. Competing in the global marketplace.4. Making Alberta the best place to live, work and visit.
  • top strategies:• A Learning Alberta – basing Alberta’s growth on the knowledge industry• Securing Tomorrow’s Prosperity: Sustaining the Alberta Advantage – transition to a knowledge-based and value-added economy• A Place to Grow – linking rural economic development with educational attainment levels• Strengthening Relationships – Working strategically to strengthen partnerships between First Nations, Metis and Aboriginal peoples.• Supporting Immigrants, Immigration to Alberta and Integrating Skilled Immigrants into the Alberta Economy – attraction, development and retention of immigrants into Alberta• Growing our Future – integrating life-sciences strategies into innovation and some value-added sectors
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  • emphasizing a high performance workforce and a high performance work environment.
  • Investment in innovation and skills upgrading are key tofinding employment in Alberta in the coming years.• Labour supply pressures will resurface for some occupationsin the medium and long term due to Alberta’s agingpopulation.• Medium to long term labour force planning should continueto ensure Alberta has the skilled labour force it requires inthe future.
  • people who are targeted for the BETW initiative are youth, women, people with disabilities, immigrants, Aboriginal populations and minorities
  • common complaint was the expense of upgrading, re-training or accessing professional association tests for immigrants who were struggling to have their credentials recognized.
  • job loss due to the recession has been hardest on men in male dominated professions, Aboriginal youth and in agriculture, finance, insurance, real estate, leasing, manufacturing, construction and retail industries. Job increases were observed in health care, social work, information, culture and recreation,
  • the reality of the situation is more troubling and complex than recent BETW evaluations would have us believe
  • From the Advanced Education labour market report, unemployment recession effects are felt strongly by those very groups targeted for benefit from the strategy
Omar Yaqub

ESL classes key for immigrant workers - 0 views

  • All labour market growth will be due to immigrants. If businesses want to grow, they will need to hire immigrants. But those immigrants need a chance to learn English.
Omar Yaqub

Multicultural meritocracy - 0 views

  • Yezdi Pavri, vice-chairman of professional services firm Deloitte in Canada. "There is a competitive business advantage to having a diverse workforce and drawing from the widest talent pool possible. At Deloitte we have created an inclusive meritocracy. We have proven just as other organizations have that diversity leads to innovation. When you capitalize on the different experiences people bring you come up with better solutions. Now, many of our clients push us to have diverse teams. The worst thing you can do these days is go to a client with a team of five white men because that does not represent what the market or what our clients look like.
  • Here then are some strategies small businesses can use to attract and retain skilled immigrant workers:
  • "Make it known that as a small employer you are interested in hiring skilled immigrants,"
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  • ALLIES [Assisting Local Leaders with Immigrant Employment Strategies] is an umbrella organization that reaches across the country. It's a good place to start
  • Conduct interviews in the applicant's first language. "From a recruiting perspective, we are out looking for people with the right skills and often we will find individuals who have tremendous technical capabilities but English may be a struggle and so they have trouble representing themselves in an interview situation,"
  • "If we bring someone on board, we go through an extensive orientation process and part of that includes offering them the opportunity to take English language courses or other types of assimilation courses. We also fund continuing learning across our teams. That is a value for us and it helps us retain our talent." Thales Canada's Toronto location has a 95% reten-tion rate among new immigrants.
  • Create a buddy system. "We partner every new employee with a buddy who is not their coach or manager and who helps them navigate Deloitte,"
  • "What is the right way to dress? What are the right cultural protocols? People coming from other parts of the world don't have the common protocols we take for granted. This buddy system has been tremendously effective. A couple of years after a skilled immigrant has joined us and assimilated into the culture, they are often the most keen to act as buddies to new people coming in.
  • Start small. "We piloted our strategy, nurturing our leaders and instituted cultural awareness training,"
  • "Organizations like TRIEC can help you with cultural training, often at no cost. This will help you identify cultural differences and then figure out ways to address them tactfully."
Omar Yaqub

Record numbers of immigrants to Canada in 2008 - 0 views

  • 2008 Canadian immigration Statistics are as follows: 247,202 permanent residents; 70,000 more than in 1998. The Canadian Government had a target of 240,000 to 265,000 new permanent residents for the year. 193,061 temporary foreign workers. 79,459 foreign students Total permanent and temporary residents for the year: 519,722
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    247,202 permanent residents; 70,000 more than in 1998. The Canadian Government had a target of 240,000 to 265,000 new permanent residents for the year. 193,061 temporary foreign workers. 79,459 foreign students
Omar Yaqub

The Economists - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

  • biggest growth in employer demand has been for basic labour or unspecified skills,
  • In 2000, 11 per cent of temporary foreign workers performed basic labour or unspecified skills; now 34 per cent of them do.
  • The temporary foreign worker program is really about contracting out immigration," says Yessy Byl, a lawyer who volunteers with the Edmonton Community Legal Centre. “In fact the government is setting the stage for a bizarre non-immigration program because those workers can’t immigrate.”
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  • there’s a danger in allowing employers, alone, to define Canada’s immigration policy: Employers are increasingly looking for average workers, not skilled labour.
Omar Yaqub

News Release - Minister Kenney strengthens economic value of provincial immigration pro... - 0 views

  • semi- and low-skilled professions will have to undergo mandatory language testing of their listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities and meet a minimum standard across all four of these categories
  • Starting July 1, 2012, most Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) applicants for
  • In Saskatchewan, 5,354 immigrants arrived under the program in 2010, compared with 173 in 2003.
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  • The PNP is now Canada’s second largest economic immigration program, with admissions having grown from about 8,000 immigrants in 2005 to expected admissions of 42,000 people this year. Each province and territory is responsible for the design and management of its own PNP, which must be consistent with federal immigration policy, legislation and the terms of bilateral agreements.
Omar Yaqub

CICIC > Credential Assessment Services - 0 views

  • All agencies and organizations listed below adhere to the General Guiding Principles for Good Practice in the Assessment of Foreign Credentials and the Recommendation on Criteria and Procedures for the Assessment of Foreign Qualifications adopted under the 1997 Lisbon Recognition Convention. Note that their assessments are not necessarily appropriate or applicable to all situations. If you are planning to study in Canada, consult our Fact Sheet #1 "Information for students educated abroad applying for admission to Canadian universities and colleges" at http://www.cicic.ca/392/admission-to-universities-and-colleges.canada. If you intend to work in a regulated occupation, you will first need to contact the pertinent regulatory body (see our occupational profiles at http://www.cicic.ca/403/occupational-profiles-for-selected-trades-and-professions.canada) for detailed instructions on the procedure to follow (Note: even if you are already licensed to practice a regulated occupation in Canada, employers may request that you provide them with a formal assessment of your academic credentials; if that is the case, please contact one of the services listed below).
  • Alberta International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS) Foreign Qualifications Recognition (FQR) Unit Immigration Division Alberta Employment and Immigration 9th Floor, 108 Street Building 9942 - 108 Street Edmonton, Alberta  T5K 2J5 Canada Tel.: +1 780 427-2655 Toll-free in Alberta: 310-0000 ask for 427-2655 Fax: +1 780 422-9734 Web site: http://employment.alberta.ca/Immigration/4512.html
Omar Yaqub

IV. Evaluating the Nominee Programs: Institutional Design and Practice - 0 views

  • Alberta’s “semi-skilled” nominee stream for lower-skilled workers – a hodgepodge of narrow, sector-specific pathways – currently makes temporary foreign workers in the food and beverage processing, hotel and lodging, manufacturing, trucking, and foodservice sectors eligible for nomination.[
  • Employers and workers in these sectors follow a relatively complex application process.[xcii] First, employers specify the number of nominations they intend to make, and outline the job description and requirements, settlement and retention plans, and any sector-specific requirements to the provincial government. This process allocates a specific number of nominations to each employer directly, limiting the maximum number of nominations according to sector.[xciii] Once allocations are made, employers are eligible to select foreign workers who meet the basic education and worker experience requirements for nomination.
  • In Alberta, lower-skilled foreign workers must be employed with the nominating employer for a minimum period of six months before they are eligible for nomination. Other requirements for education and experience in workers’ home countries vary across sectors. After nominated workers have been approved as nominees by the province, they apply CIC for permanent residency status.
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  • process of allocating nominations to employers before they select individual nominees disadvantages workers in at least two ways. First, it further discourages workers from accessing existing employment protections such as minimum employment standards in the face of employer abuses, by giving employers sole discretion to “reward” workers with nominations. Given that these nominations represent a direct path to permanent residence status in Canada, they are obviously extremely valuable to workers. As Yessy Byl, the Alberta Federation of Labour’s Temporary Foreign Worker Advocate, points out, some employers “use this program as a further excuse to exploit workers who desperately want to immigrate.
  • Many dangle the possibility of nomination in the AINP to ensure acquiescence to unreasonable requests such as unpaid work, additional work, etc.”[xcvi] Second, by limiting the number of allocations made to each employer, this system is likely to increase competition among workers for nominations and may even discourage employers from participating in the nominee program altogether because they regard it as arbitrary and unfair.
  • MPNP requires employers to notify temporary foreign workers, within their initial six months of work, that the employer intends to nominate them through the MPNP. This requirement has the advantage of minimizing worker uncertainty about their future status while they are still ineligible for nomination under provincial requirements.
  • further reform might be for the province to remove the six-month work requirement, making foreign workers eligible for nomination as soon as they begin work in Canada. This would at least provide the opportunity to do away with the temporary “trial period”, during which workers are arguably most vulnerable. Such a reform, however, may also serve to increase employer control ever further and calls into question the overall legitimacy of a program that gives private actors such broad scope to nominate immigrants without even basic requirements to prove their bona fides. Realistically, these challenges point to the inherent inadequacy of the TFWPs as an entry point for permanent economic immigration through an employer-driven nominee program. Palliative reforms that fail to recognize underlying problems of regulatory devolution and resulting institutional mismatch are unlikely to generate the kinds of outcomes for vulnerable foreign workers that fairness and sound economic policy-making are likely to demand.
  • employer beliefs that individuals from certain countries of origin are better able to perform this or that job create racialized profiles within particular sectors and industries.
  • Left to the sole discretion of employers, the effects of nominee selection processes in this area will likely be to ossify and entrench aspects of race and gender discrimination as part of Canada’s economic immigration system.
  • Employers in Manitoba, for example, have been active both in lobbying for an expanded nominee program and in developing surrounding institutions and services. 
  • developed a network of services for foreign workers that have been widely hailed as successful innovations – at least in those workplaces and urban environments where workers are able to take advantage of them.
  • Alberta’s nominee program requires employers to provide workers with in-house language training services or to arrange for provision by a third party. Likewise, the AINP obligates employers in most streams to design an accommodation and settlement plan for nominees that “demonstrate employer support and assistance toward successful integration of the workforce, community and society integration.”[cvi] While these seemingly modest requirements may appear to be positive developments in the direction of improving workers’ security and likelihood of successful settlement, the implied trend is clearly toward the devolution of support services away from the provincial government and toward private actors, the effects of which remain largely unevaluated.
  • There are two specific criticisms directed at this aspect of regulatory devolution. One is that obliging employers to provide essential settlement services further skews barging power to the disadvantage of workers by enmeshing their personal and family lives even more closely with authoritative decision-making processes undertaken by their employers. Jenna Hennebry has pointed out that:
Omar Yaqub

Manitoba leaking nominee workers - Member News - Community - The Canadian Tourism Human... - 0 views

  • Between 2005 and 2009, Manitoba received 13,089 immigrants through the provincial nominee program, nearly 40 per cent of the 33,722 nominee immigrants who landed in Canada in those years. Alberta, with 14 per cent, was a distant second.
  • Although immigration falls under federal jurisdiction, Ottawa has signed agreements to let provinces and territories establish criteria for, and seek out, immigrants to fill a province's specific economic needs. Manitoba was the first to sign such an agreement in 1996 and has been the most successful at using the program.
  • In Manitoba, where the provincial government has touted the nominee program as one of the saviours of the provincial economy, nominees are far more likely to be poor and working below their skill level than in other western provinces.
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  • Between 2000 and 2008, 82.6 per cent of Manitoba nominees remained in the province. That compared to 86 per cent in Saskatchewan, 95.6 per cent in Alberta and 96.4 per cent in British Columbia
  • Nominees who leave are most likely to move to Alberta, B.C. and Ontario
Omar Yaqub

Operational Bulletin 279-B - May 31, 2011 - 0 views

  • Foreign nationals who are entering Canada and destined to Alberta as TFWs, and who have an initial job offer from an Alberta employer (or an Alberta employer making a job offer on behalf of a recognized Group of Employers (GoE) under the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)-Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) GoE Pilot in the Steamfitter-Pipefitter occupation—National Occupational Classification 7252; or, TFWs certified and currently working in the steamfitter/pipefitter trade in Alberta.
  • Steamfitter-Pipefitter is a compulsory trade in Alberta. Therefore, the uncertified TFW must have an approved application and an approval letter from Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training (AAIT) for the Qualification Certification Program prior to arrival in Canada (see sample in Appendix A). Information related to the Qualification Certificate Program can be found at www.tradesecrets.alberta.ca.
  • A one-year employer-specific WP, specific to the Steamfitter-Pipefitter occupation and based on a job offer from a named employer, or an employer making a job offer on behalf of a recognized GoE under the CIC-HRSDC GoE Pilot, may be granted to a foreign national as described above upon application (including payment of the appropriate fee) and without requiring an LMO.
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  • advise officers of a Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) pilot project effective in the Province of Alberta, allowing foreign nationals coming to Canada to work temporarily in a specific occupation and to be issued a Work Permit (WP) without requiring a Labour Market Opinion (LMO) from Service Canada
  • LMO Exemption Code is T13 in conjunction with R204(c) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations—“an agreement entered into by the Minister with a province or group of provinces under subsection 8(1) of the Act”. This code must be used on the initial one-year WP and the subsequent two-year open WP.
  • oth the initial WP and the subsequent open WP should indicate in the “Province” field and in the printed “Conditions” that it is only valid for work performed in the province of Alberta and in the Steamfitter-Pipefitter occupation.
Omar Yaqub

ANNOUNCEMENTS | Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission - 0 views

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    The Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission (SATCC) and the Canadian International Training and Education Corporation (CITREC) have signed a partnership agreement. CITREC will be offering these assessment services in foreign countries under the IMMSKILLS brand. This assessment service will provide an avenue for foreign trained workers to have a pre-assessment prepared for their training credentials prior to immigrating or working for a employer in Saskatchewan and Canada. The assessment service for foreign nationals will be provided directly by CITREC for both voluntary and compulsory trades on a fee-for-service basis. Through this unique partnership, people immigrating to Saskatchewan will be able to identify the potential value of their trade and qualifications. The assessment results will assist the Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission in their review of documentation for people wishing to challenge certification examinations (journeyperson), or enter apprenticeship-training programs, in Saskatchewan. Those who SATCC deems to have successfully met the tradesperson eligibility requirements will be able to apply to take the journeyperson examination once they have located in Saskatchewan; those who achieve interprovincial "Red Seal" journeyperson status could earn a higher wage, and work anywhere in Canada.
Omar Yaqub

News Release - Government of Canada consults on immigrant skilled worker program - 0 views

  • Government of Canada consults on immigrant skilled worker program
  • To stay competitive globally, we have to make sure the skilled immigrants we choose are the ones that we need, and the most likely to succeed when they get here,” said Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. “Research points to some key changes that will help us meet those goals.”
Omar Yaqub

Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program : Alberta, Canada - Immigration - 0 views

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    The AINP is currently not accepting applications under the AINP U.S. Visa Holder Category and the AINP Family Stream. Applications postmarked after August 23, 2010 will be returned. Applications postmarked on or before August 23, 2010 that meet all program criteria will be accepted for processing and will be processed according to AINP Processing Times and U.S. Visa Holder Category or Family Stream criteria. See the following News Release for further information
Omar Yaqub

New online resource helps employers and HR professionals understand foreign-earned educ... - 0 views

  • A new tool will help employers and human resources professionals better understand academic credentials earned abroad. The online tool will improve the attraction and retention of newcomers which is an important part of addressing the province’s future labour shortage
  • Education Overview Guides are an online resource that explains how international education credentials compare to Alberta education credentials and standards. Employers, Human Resource professionals, potential immigrants, and recent newcomers can all benefit from understanding how foreign education credentials compare to Alberta standards.
  • For more information on the Guides, please visit the Education Overview Guides. For more information on Foreign Qualification Recognition and to see other resources, please visit Foreign Qualification Recognition or call 780–427-2655 (toll-free by calling 310–0000).
Omar Yaqub

Backgrounder - Bill C-35 - Highlights - 0 views

  • anyone who provides paid immigration advice at the pre-application stage will need to be an authorized representative, as identified in section 91 of the Act.
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    "means that anyone who provides paid immigration advice at the pre-application stage will need to be an authorized representative"
Omar Yaqub

https://www.iccrc-crcic.ca/admin/contentEngine/contentImages/file/Accredited%20Institut... - 0 views

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     following academic institutions offer the ICCRC accredited immigration practitioner program labour immigration training.
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