It\u2019s been a demanding year for Renuka Gamage and her family.<\/p>\n
Just 11 months ago, Gamage and her husband, both originally from Sri Lanka, made the decision to leave their adopted home of Dubai and make another international transition to Canada. The opportunity for a new start has been exciting, but Gamage \u2013 an electrical engineer with an MBA \u2013 still hasn\u2019t found a job to match her skill set. With work experience in two countries, she didn\u2019t anticipate that the search for her dream job in Canada would last as long as it has.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an immigrant, it takes a lot of courage to go through this process. You don\u2019t expect this to happen when you come here,” she says.<\/p>\n
When funding a moving to Canada, waiting for a job is<\/p>\n
one of the biggest financial hurdles faced by immigrants like Gamage. Many Canadian employers are looking for candidates with Canadian experience, which most newcomers simply don\u2019t have.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny immigrant that comes into the country is facing a vicious circle \u2013 no Canadian work experience, no job,\u201d says Gohar Agaanalian, who emigrated from Armenia five years ago.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an obstacle that Michelle Iseman, a business development officer with Ottawa\u2019s International Talent Acquisition Centre, or In-TAC, is helping immigrants overcome. In-TAC helps newcomers interested in IT or accounting connect with potential employers in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will find a lot of people coming in, and they get frustrated because they can\u2019t find a job right away,\u201d Iseman says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s full-time work to find a job, and if you\u2019re not working at it all the time, it\u2019s really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
RECOGNIZING FOREIGN CREDENTIALS<\/strong><\/p>\n The problem faced by many immigrants in getting Canadian job experience is also compounded by the challenge of obtaining recognition for foreign credentials.<\/p>\n Manoj Varghese, an engineer born in India, immigrated to Canada from Kuwait in 1999. He was surprised to discover that his educational background and work experiences weren\u2019t getting him any interviews with Canadian employers.<\/p>\n \u201cBased on my discussions with employment centres and career coaches, it was getting down to getting a Canadian [work] experience \u2013 and obviously without a job you can\u2019t get experience,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Although he\u2019d already been in the field as an engineer, Varghese\u2019s solution was to enroll in a graduate certificate program at Sheraton College in Toronto. Fortunately, he had planned ahead by saving up to support himself for at least six months before immigrating. Without the money he spent on adding Canadian credentials to his resume, he says he might never have been hired at Nortel back in 2000.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was sort of a blessing for me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause that was a post-graduate certificate program, and got you prepared for work life \u2013 [it was] more in tune with the requirements of building a career.\u201d<\/p>\n MONEY FOR RETRAINING<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re getting ready to move to Canada, it may be wise to follow Varghese\u2019s lead and set aside funds\u00a0for retraining or adding Canadian credentials to your resum\u00e9. According to University of Ottawa professor Patti Tamara Lenard, Canada\u2019s federal and provincial governments have been debating for years over a system that would allow for foreign credentials to be assessed quickly, perhaps in the same way as international school transcripts. So far, they haven\u2019t come to any agreements, which makes retraining a more likely requirement for immigrants.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not doing enough to make sure that foreign credentials are recognized efficiently and quickly,\u201d Lenard says.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the federal government and provincial government have certainly recognized that this is the single most unfair challenge that immigrants face in getting jobs in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n Iseman says in order to survive, many new comers end up taking temporary positions or accept jobs that are below their skill level until they can find something in their field.<\/p>\n KNOWING THE ENVIRONMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n Gamage recently took a small three-week contract as a project manager for Algonquin College, and Agaanalian has accepted a few positions as an office administrator. While the positions aren\u2019t related to their fields, both women say there has been value in slowly getting to know the Canadian work environment.<\/p>\n \u201cEven at those jobs there is a lot to learn, so I highly appreciate the opportunity,\u201d says Agaanalian.<\/p>\n \u201cI gain skills, I\u2019m meeting interesting people, so it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n Besides being financially mindful, and seeking out help from others, Gamage, Agaanalian, and Varghese also recognize the power of attitude in making the challenging transition to a new country. And having at least a small nest egg is almost essential.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you come here, you have to be totally prepared, because many of the people coming here are professionals, well-established in their countries. So the transition is not easy, it\u2019s going to be very difficult,\u201d adds Varghese.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just preparation, and accepting that it\u2019s going to be tough in the short term.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s been a demanding year for Renuka Gamage and her family. Just 11 months ago, Gamage and her husband, both<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[53,52,51,50,54],"class_list":["post-3235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-finanice-2013","tag-foreign-credentials","tag-immigrant-empoyment","tag-kate-wilkinson","tag-renuka-gamage","tag-retraining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3235"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4495,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3235\/revisions\/4495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}