Skills for Change – Opportunity for All
With immigration accounting for nearly all workforce growth as well as total population growth in Ontario, you’d think immigrants must be doing well. But Stats Canada reports that immigrants are falling behind economically. The co-existence of these two facts should set off alarm bells across the country.
But this growth will continue. Canada’s economy will suffer if it doesn’t. And as our workforce grows more culturally diverse, Skills for Change aims to provide practical solutions and social initiatives to make sure that everyone has equal access to opportunities.
Progress is made when the settlement sector works together, when the changes become systemic rather than isolated. A few years ago, while she was still engaged as Social Entrepreneur in Residence for the MaRS Centre, Cheryl May watched a many great initiatives come and go on the political winds. And she recognized that agencies and interest groups would be considerably more successful at bringing about the necessary systemic changes if they genuinely worked together.
Now, as the Executive Director at Skills for Change, May is looking to service providers, educators, regulatory bodies and interest groups to take a lead role in improving the opportunities for internationally trained engineers to work in their field in Canada.
Skills for Change has always been head-first and hands-on. Its pilot program in 1983 was an office training course that successfully prepared a group of Southeast Asian women for full-time employment. Today, a wide range of accelerated programs are offered to fit the needs of people arriving from all parts of the world.
The Trades Win Program helps internationally-trained HVAC mechanics, plumbers, millwrights, construction/maintenance electricians and industrial electricians get the qualifications they need to find work in Ontario.
Career Transitions for International Medical Doctors “is a must for any medical doctor immigrating to Canada,” says University Health Network Clinical Research Coordinator, Andrea Morillo.
Skills for Change programs range from the excellent and widely adopted (and increasingly systemic) Employment Ontario programs to more specialized programs like Engineering Your Future, a program designed to help internationally trained engineers, technicians and technologists to secure employment in their fields.
Following the March 30th Conference for International Engineers at MaRS Centre are:
- Pioneers for Change – the 20th anniversary of the celebrated New Pioneers Awards, on June 6th;
- the second annual Mentorpalooza! in August;
- The third Diversity@Work conference in November;
- plus numerous Workshops & Information Sessions throughout the year.
If you’re setting the course for your career in Canada, visit Skills for Change at 791 St. Clair Avenue West in Toronto. A Brampton office focused on trades was opened in 2009, and in 2010 Skills for Change launched two new Employment Centres in Toronto. Future development plans reflect new trends in employment and settlement, and a new centre in York Region, opening early 2012.
All centres offer: information and referral; assessment, including Canadian Language Benchmark assessments in English and French; one-to-one counselling; workshops and events; settlement services and/or referral to settlement services in the community; and mentoring. Aside from employment, Mentoring for Change includes settlement, professional and language mentoring. The reach of this program is expanding – with improved workflow, contact management and the introduction of e-mentoring.
