SkillsInternational.ca is an on-line, searchable database of candidate profiles that is dedicated exclusively to profiling the skills of immigrant job seekers in Ontario. The first of its kind in Canada, this tool unites pre-screened, internationally trained individuals with employers who need their skills. It is cost effective, efficient and easy to use.
A grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation has enabled the creation of SkillsInternational.ca, a tool that unites pre-screened, internationally educated professionals with employers who need their skills. This on-line tool is cost effective, efficient and the first of its kind in Canada.
The Waterloo Region District School Board, WIL Employment Connections in London and COSTI Immigrant Services in Toronto, formed a collaborative to take this project from concept to creation.
While on-line searchable résumé databases are not new, a site dedicated exclusively to profiling the skills of Ontario's internationally educated professionals did not previously exist.
More than 79 agencies across Ontario who work with immigrants to provide connections to the labour market will be able to post the résumés of qualified, screened applicants who are ready to work in a field related to their education and experience. Employers can perform a variety of searches based on relevant criteria including skills, experience and education to review the résumés of qualified candidates, helping to ease existing and looming shortages.
Internationally educated professionals continue to be underemployed or unemployed in Canada, of particular concern in Ontario where 60% of Canada's immigrants are received. This results in the negative opportunity cost of immigrant professionals working in minimum wage jobs instead of participating in economic growth by working in their more lucrative fields, and in some cases, the cost of social service supports to our immigrant families who want to work.
With the need to attract more immigrants to Canada to ensure continued economic growth and development, it is more important than ever that Ontario establish a strong track record of recognizing the skills of the internationally educated and developing strategies to ensure their full employment in their field or a related field.
Canada is not alone in trying to recruit skilled workers. Many other industrialized nations have joined the rush in using immigration as an economic tool. The reasons for this trend are simple:
- The world economy is becoming increasingly global with labour moving more freely between countries, much like capital has already done.
- The demographics of industrialized nations are changing (i.e. aging populations resulting in competition for newcomer skills needed to maintain current standards of living).
While immigrant-serving organizations are already linked through sector associations, SkillsInternational.ca unifies this client group under one umbrella, bringing the often overlooked yet much needed skills and experience of Ontario's internationally educated professionals under ONE site.
FACT SHEET
A study by the Canadian Labour and Business Centre released in August 2003 found that it now takes more than 10 years in Canada before the unemployment rate among immigrants' drops to the level of Canadian born citizens. This is double the time it took 20 years earlier.
A landmark Canadian study released in September 2003 and documented in the very recent Voices for Change in The City of London, found that:
- 6 in 10 immigrants already working did not work in the same occupational field as they did before coming to Canada.
- Finding employment was the area where most immigrants reported difficulty
- While 70% found work, 42% of these were still looking for another position
- 70% of immigrants looking for work identified at least one problem with the process
- About three-quarters (76%) of immigrants had a foreign credential (more than a high school diploma)
- Lack of Canadian experience and difficulty transferring credentials were each cited by 26% of those who had foreign credentials and reported at least one problem when trying to enter the labour market
- Given their gloomy employment prospects, two-thirds of immigrants who already have a university degree intended to pursue further university-level training
In Ontario, the situation is similar. Consider these findings from another recent study on immigrant professionals in regulated fields:
- The unemployment rate of internationally educated professionals is over three times as high as other people in Ontario
- 60% of internationally educated professionals who took jobs unrelated to their training when they first came to Canada held the same job three years later
- Less than one-quarter of internationally educated professionals who were employed were working in their exact field, and 47% were doing something irrelevant to their field
In recent years about 225,000 immigrants have come to Canada each year, with a desired target of about 300,000 (or 1% of the population).
In each of the past few years, Ontario has received over 100,000 immigrants from 180 different countries.
- The Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) develops a local, web-enabled solution to storing immigrant professionals' résumés in a format that is searchable by employers who need their skills
- WRDSB secures funds to document a vision of one, centralized database that boasts the skills and experience of all job-ready, immigrant professionals in Canada; brain-storming this concept continues between the New Canadian Program (a program of the WRDSB) and COSTI Immigrant Services
- WIL Employment Connections joins the WRDSB New Canadian Program and COSTI in their passion for this tool and researches possible funding sources to make this dream a reality for immigrants in Ontario
- WIL Employment Connections, the Waterloo Region District School Board and COSTI form a collaborative and secure $441,400 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to build and promote SkillsInternational.ca. Dozens of other immigrant serving agencies support the creation of this tool
- SkillsInternational.ca goes live on March 10, 2006 at a three site, video media conference
