Job program for immigrants aims to fill labour gaps outside GTA

The Rural Employment Initiative networks with employers in smaller communities, vets and refers suitable immigrant candidates willing to relocate from Greater Toronto.

Thestar.com
March 26, 2017
By Nicholas Keung

Apoorvya Kapoor started applying for jobs in Canada even before she arrived from India last May, but none of the 200-plus resumes she sent out to GTA employers yielded a response.

Frustrated with the grim employment prospects, the new immigrant attended a job fair in Mississauga in November put on by the Peel Newcomer Centre and a staff member asked if she would consider relocating outside of Greater Toronto.

“You go to all these websites and 95 per cent of the job postings are within the GTA,” said Kapoor, who has an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering and a master’s degree in hospital administration from India. “I just never thought about that.”

That’s the mindset the Peel newcomer service agency is hoping to change with an innovative program, called the Rural Employment Initiative, which aims to connect newcomers with job openings in smaller Ontario communities.

Currently, the program serves any employer outsode the GTA, but ultimately it hopes to focus on communities with populations under 10,000.

“Youth from these communities are leaving for the big cities to study and when they finish school, they don’t go back,” said Oliver Pryce, the project’s co-ordinator.

“These communities have all these unmet labour market needs. We are hoping to fill these gaps with newcomers who are willing to relocate and work outside of Greater Toronto.”

The project is the brainchild of the Peel Newcomer Centre and the Ontario Association of Community Futures Development Corporation, a federally-funded group representing 61 rural communities. The employment initiative itself is funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Over the past year, Pryce has been reaching out to municipal economic development departments, local business sectors and employment services in smaller communities. So far, the project has already established partnerships in Huron County, Owen Sound, Thunder Bay, Windsor and Woodstock.

While local employers and stakeholders are committed to offering leads for job openings, the newcomer centre will provide the communities with diversity awareness training — and more importantly, screen newcomers and refer suitable job candidates to them for consideration. The program will also connect relocated immigrants with newcomer services in their new community.

Since the project shifted into high gear in November, it has received more than 100 job leads, drawn 90 newcomers interested in relocating and made three successful matches.

The jobs, many in the manufacturing sector, include auto parts production, mining, information technology, health care, project management and marketing.

“When a client (immigrant) comes to us, we make sure they understand what it means by rural and what it means to move to these communities. We give them the tools where to look for those opportunities in smaller communities,” said Pryce.

“We look at their family structure. When you move, it’s not just one person, but your family and children are involved. We look at their resumes and credentials to ensure their job readiness.”

Kapoor, who moved to Kitchener and started her job at Grand River Hospital as a project manager in February, said employment is every new immigrant’s top priority and most, especially singles like her, won’t mind moving to where job opportunities are.

Although smaller communities do not have the ethnocultural diversity of big cities, she said all her basic daily needs are met living in downtown Kitchener.

“We come here as skilled workers. We have good education and years of work experience. Having a good career is our incentive,” said Kapoor, a native of New Delhi. “For new immigrants, you can’t have a closed mind. You have to be flexible in order to get what you want.”

Neethamol Parapanatuputhenpurakal Subramannian came to Canada in December from India, where she had been a registered nurse in a hospital and long-term care facility in Kochi, a city in the state of Kerala.

After initially staying with a former colleague in Brampton, she got a job interview at a nursing home in Woodstock through the Rural Employment Initiative in February for a personal support worker position. She was hired and is now working toward getting her nursing licence in Ontario.

“The living environment here is definitely better. The cost of living is lower and the people are friendlier. My colleagues were eager to help me. When I moved into my apartment, they brought me furniture. My superintendent even gives me a ride to work,” she said. “I wouldn’t have known about the opportunities that existed in rural Canada.”

Pryce does caution newcomers to adjust their expectations when looking for their first jobs in Canada.

“Some of our clients are engineers but don’t have experience in manufacturing or don’t want to relocate and work in the manufacturing industry. That can be a challenge,” said Pryce, who is working on a job fair on May 30 profiling employers from smaller Ontario communities.

“I think the rural employment program works best for the most recent immigrants who are eager to get their first jobs in Canada. They are new to the country and more willing to make their first step in smaller communities.”