Mentorship programs help newcomers network

BY DEREK SANKEY, THE CALGARY HERALD NOVEMBER 28, 2011

 

0

 

• STORY
• PHOTOS ( 1 )

 

 

A trained engineer, Beatriz Arias Quero landed a job at TransCanada in August after almost two years of looking.

Photograph by: Stuart Gradon, Calgary Herald

Trained as an industrial engineer in Venezuela, Beatriz Arias Quero immigrated to Canada in 2004 and landed in Montreal to pursue her master's degree while working to gain some Canadian experience.

At the end of 2009, she moved to Calgary for family reasons, but didn't have any experience in the oil and gas industry that dominates the city's economy.

"It was hard because I didn't have a network in Calgary," Arias Quero says.

After all, even within Canada, workplace cultures and industries vary significantly from region to region. So, she applied to jobs online, cold called and networked by taking industry-related professionals out for coffee, but nothing concrete ever came of her one-off meetings.

Frustrated, she also applied to every immigrant resource centre available to her to try to form an ongoing relationship with somebody who could offer local advice to land a job. Then, she heard about a mentoring program through the Calgary Region Immigrant Employment Council.

She enrolled in the council's Mentoring Collaborative program, a four-month initiative that matches up new immigrants with an established, local professional, which started in January.

Midway through the program, both mentor and mentee became frustrated that she was having no luck in finding employment, but both persevered. "I would keep looking online for any (job) postings and if I saw any from TransCanada that I thought I'd be a good fit, I would take them to my mentor . . . and ask if I should apply for this."

In August, she landed a job at TransCanada Corp. as a business analyst. "It really relates to my background," she says. "It's a different industry, but the principles are the same."

During the mentoring program's pilot, the employment council made 37 matches that resulted in 17 mentees finding employment. Since January, it has had 160 mentoring relationships that yielded 67 successful job hunts, a number expected to rise with the program's followup, which includes a three-, six-and one-year checkup.

"What employers are looking for . . . is what your resume needs to look like (and) what is in your advantage to showcase - where you need to upgrade your skills," says Marie-France Varin, the council's director of program development.

Students also have the benefit of guest speakers from industry that provide additional advice, tips and direction about what new Canadians need to do - and where to find the resources - to gain employment in their fields.

Astrid Abramyan also benefited from the mentoring program. The Armenian-born supply chain management professional moved to Calgary from Moscow with her family four years ago with poor English skills, but lots of initiative.

"When I came here, I had 10 years of experience and my educational background, but I realized I had to start from zero," says Abramyan, who quickly enrolled in English courses upon arrival.

She is now working toward her Canadian professional designation as a supply chain management professional - she is graduates in 2012 - but has already found employment in her field as a result of the mentoring program.

What prompted her to enrol was frustration after sending out more than 30 resumes and not getting even a single telephone interview.

After the program, she landed a job through an employment agency at a large, integrated oil and gas company in Calgary. As she hones her English and works toward accreditation, Abramyan is confident she'll be able to demonstrate her abilities to her current employer over the next several months. It's valuable Canadian experience that will surely help her in the future, wherever she ends up in her career.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Read more:http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Mentorship+programs+help+newcomers+network/5778582/story.html#ixzz1f4LnD3Ym

Employers crossing cultural boundaries

BY DENISE DEVEAU, POSTMEDIA NEWS NOVEMBER 28, 2011

 

0

 

• STORY
• PHOTOS ( 1 )

 

 

Recruitment specialist for Hatch, Jamie Rogers is photographed in his downtown office in SW Calgary on November 18, 2011.

Photograph by: Adrian Shellard, Postmedia News

Like any business professional on the move, Jamie Rogers likes to network. But for this recruitment specialist at Hatch, a Calgary-based engineering firm, his sphere of influence is a little out of the ordinary.

Rogers is a firm believer that international experience is a terrific advantage in the Canadian workplace. That's why he spends a lot of time working with immigration agencies, colleges and other associations to meet, greet and mentor new Canadians.

His passion for helping immigrants find employment harkens back to the time Rogers spent working abroad after graduating from university.

"That experience gave me real insight into how businesses work out there and the many similarities," he says.

He considers it an important opportunity to find potential talent that might otherwise be over-looked. "There's been a belief that a person needs Canadian experience before they can be hired. But overseas experience is solid. The language and cultural differences are easy to overcome if you have the credentials."

Tapping into this work pool is quickly becoming a business imperative. According to Lynn M. Merrithew, corporation relation liaison for the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society, 24,000 new Canadians from 120 countries arrive in Alberta each year.

"That's a large number. And given the trends - older workers retiring, lower birthrates, etc. - we have to depend on immigration to sustain our corporate growth here," Merrithew says.

This is far from being a local phenomenon. Teresa Gonzalez, director, gateway for international professionals at Ryerson University's G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education in Toronto, says "immigrants are expected to account for all of Canada's labour force growth this year.

For that reason, access to this pool of talent has become a pressing issue for employers."

The challenge for many employers lies in knowing where to find the right qualifications and talent for the job.

Rogers says he likes to work with organizations such as CCIS and Bow Valley College, which offer a range of networking, professional development and placement services designed to encourage business leaders to connect with new immigrants.

"These programs are a great tool for anyone in HR staffing," Rogers says.

New Canadians can also help themselves enormously by put-ting themselves in the networking picture and working on building "soft skills" to augment their credentials, Gonzales says.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

 

 

 

•  

 

Read more:http://www.vancouversun.com/Employers+crossing+cultural+boundaries/5778574/story.html#ixzz1f4KUOirx

Balancing social and economic interests with family sponsorships

Written by  Jennifer NeesPosted Date: November 28, 2011

Source: Canadian Lawyer

On Nov. 4, the Canadian government announced it was taking immediate action to cut the backlog of parent/grandparent sponsorship applications by suspending any new applications for the program. It vowed to decrease the backlog of 165,000 files by increasing the number of those backlogged applications processed during 2012. In addition, the government will be introducing a new “Parent and Grandparent Super Visa,” which will allow eligible applicants a 10-year visa valid for multiple two-year stays in Canada. This Super Visa will become available on Dec. 1.

The reaction of the immigration bar to this announcement has been mixed. While some counsel applaud the government’s efforts to address the extensive processing times (five years and counting), others are concerned that the unspoken “truth” is that the government no longer places an importance on sponsoring parents and grandparents.

There’s been much discussion about the various benefits and drawbacks of the parental sponsorship program. Among the benefits are the importance of family reunification as a tenet of the Canadian immigration program, the benefits that parents and grandparents provide with respect to familial issues such as childcare, and the liquidated assets that many parents and grandparents bring to Canada when they land as immigrants. The drawback arguments have included the possible increased demand on health-care services from elderly new immigrants and the general lack of contribution to the Canadian workplace as elderly new immigrants may be less likely to enter the Canadian labour market.

The theory is the Super Visa would deal with the positive aspects without incurring any of the negative ones. While information kits are not yet available online, Citizenship and Immigration Canada has indicated that Super Visa applicants will be required to undergo an immigration medical examination; demonstrate they have purchased private Canadian medical insurance; and provide a written commitment of financial support from a child or grandchild in Canada who meets a minimum income threshold. If approved, they will be allowed to remain in Canada for two years at a time without access to health care or the labour market.

While I can appreciate the benefit of having parents or grandparents visit for a long time, and the positive effects this could have for Canadian citizen and permanent resident families, in my mind it falls short.

The Super Visa will allow foreign parents and grandparents to come to Canada, to visit for up to two years at a time and to spend their money, but it will not allow them to make Canada their home, to build a life here with their Canadian citizen/permanent resident children, or the certainty of where they will be if they unfortunately require some sort of long-term care or treatment. It also creates uncertainty for the Canadian citizen/permanent resident offspring who is concerned about long-term care options for a family member, which would be alleviated by having a Canadian permanent resident parent.

It’s a fine balance between the economic and social benefits of having family sponsorship in general. As a society, we want to encourage the best and brightest potential immigrants, but this means offering more than just the possibility of jobs. It also means allowing them to sponsor their family members and to build a complete life in Canada. For many people, this will mean having the ability to sponsor parents or grandparents, and even siblings, who continue to be ineligible under the Canadian family sponsorship class.

It will be interesting to see how these changes affect the program and if the Super Visas decrease the number of overall applicants under this class if/when the suspension is lifted and the class becomes operational again. The Super Visa will likely offer a speedy option for parents and grandparents who are interested only in visiting their Canadian children, and it certainly addresses the issues surrounding access to health care, but it ignores many of the social reasons why people sponsor their parents and grandparents to Canada in the first place.