Ottawa funds plan to employ skilled immigrants

cnews.canoe.ca
April 12, 2014
By Terry Davidson

Ottawa will partner with the country's manufacturing sector to reach out to skilled newcomers who have been trained elsewhere, Employment Minister Jason Kenney said Saturday.

Connecting with "underemployed" immigrants who have been internationally trained and having foreign credentials as engineers, technologists and technicians is one of four joint initiatives Canada and the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters have launched in a bid to address the country's skilled-labour shortage, said Kenney, who formerly served as the minister of immigration.

"The single biggest frustration I had ... was seeing brilliant people who left behind a high standard of living in their countries of origin, coming to Canada with their education and experience, only to find themselves unemployed or underemployed and too often stuck at the bottom of the labour market ... because their degrees, their education, or their experience (was) not being recognized," said Kenney at the Seimens plant north of Toronto.

The other initiatives include just over $4 million in funding to the CME to develop "occupational standards" to guide colleges and other educators in curriculum development reflective of the sector's needs, as well as $1 million for the creation of regional committees that will give employers and educators a place to discuss labour shortage issues.