The Canadian Bazaar
TORONTO: Ontario is soon making a law to make it easier for internationally trained immigrants to get licence in their professions.
Currently, most professions need Canadian experience before immigrants can the license in their profession.
Because of licensing requirements, over 293,000 jobs are currently unfilled in Ontario.
Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton told the Canadian Press that the proposed law will help internationally trained workers in 23 trades, including electricians, plumbers and hoisting engineers, to start work in their area of expertise.
The new law will do away with the need to have Canadian work experience before getting licensed.
The law would apply to licensing bodies governing engineers, architects, teachers, accountants and social workers. But it won’t cover bodies regulating medical profession.
Licensing applications will be processed faster.
Because of hurdles in the way of licensing, just 25 percent immigrants in Ontario work actually in jobs and professions in which they were trained in their countries, the minister said.
Since many professions require Canadian work experience of up to four years, most new immigrants in Canada give up their professions to do odd jobs to survive.
