Celebrating 20 years of service excellence
to New Canadians

SfCeNews
January 30, 2003
Volume 4  Issue 01

Skills for Change (SfC) is a non-profit agency based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Our mandate is to provide learning and training opportunities for immigrants and refugees so that they can participate in the workplace and wider community.

In this edition...

New Pioneers Awards Gala
Success@Skills for Change
Saturday Computer Workshops
Toronto: One of highest proportions of immigrants in world
What's Happening at DERC?
Programs and Services Update
Staff Changes

Success@SkillsforChange

Amal Debnath, a graduate of our Internationally Trained Accountants and Bookkeepers (ITAB) program, writes:

"I landed in Canada from Bangladesh in March 2001. As an immigrant I discovered my weakness in the Canadian job market within a short time – no Canadian job experience. I realized that computerized accounting knowledge and co-op placement is essential to get a job. That’s when I came to know the name and fame of “Skills for Change”. SfC would be the backbone to get the job and overcome my weakness. At last I got a great chance to over come my all weakness. Six months and a co-op placement later, I’m currently working full-time as an Accounting Assistant at the Catholic Children’s Aid Society."

This 26-week employment preparation/skills development program provides training in the areas of computerized accounting, bookkeeping, income tax preparation, office procedures, and business writing. In addition, it provides job search and labour market information to immigrants and refugees who are on social assistance. Participants gain Canadian work experience through a five-week job placement. ITAB is funded as a pilot project through the City of Toronto, Social Services Division.

For more information about ITAB...
n call 416 658-3101 x0
n visit www.skillsforchange.org/itab or,
n write itab@skillsforchange.org 

Toronto: One of highest proportions of immigrants in world
Source:  Statistics Canada

The census metropolitan area of Toronto had one of the highest proportions of foreign-born of all major urban centres in the world, according to the 2001 Census.

About 44% of Toronto’s population in 2001 was born outside Canada, higher than Miami (40%), Sydney (31%), Los Angeles (31%), and New York City (24%). This was over twice as high as Canada’s national average (18%). The census metropolitan area had 2,033,000 foreign-born people in 2001, two-thirds (67%) of the total in Ontario alone.

Toronto was home to over 43% of the nation’s newest immigrants, those who arrived between 1991 and 2001, a much higher proportion than either Vancouver (18%) or Montréal (12%). Even a decade earlier, 40% of those people who arrived in the 1980s lived in Toronto in 1991.

These newcomers also made up 17% of Toronto’s population. This was up from 1991, when 12% of the population consisted of immigrants who arrived during the 1980s.

Toronto’s newest immigrant population came from diverse backgrounds. About 11% of these newcomers in the 1990s came from the People’s Republic of China, 10% from India, and 7% each from the Philippines and Hong Kong . Other top countries of origin included Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Jamaica, Iran, Poland and Guyana.

The most frequently reported ethnic origins of people in the census metropolitan area of Toronto, either alone or in combination with other responses in 2001 were Canadian (19% of the total population), English (17%), Scottish (11%), Irish (10%) and Chinese (9%). Other frequent ethnic origins were Italian, East Indian, French, German and Portuguese.

Nearly one-quarter of Toronto residents Asian

Of the 4,648,000 residents in Toronto in 2001, 1,712,500 were visible minorities. They comprised 36.8% of Toronto’s total population, up from 31.6% in 1996 and 25.8% in 1991. This proportion, nearly three times the national average (13.4%), was nearly identical to Vancouver’s (36.9%).
 

SfC Stats 1996-2000

The largest visible minority group, South Asian, was also the fastest growing. Between 1991 and 2001, they more than doubled from 235,500 to 473,800 accounting for 28% of all Toronto’s visible minorities. They represented 10% of its population in 2001, up from 6% in 1991. Toronto was home to more than one-half (52%) of all South Asians in the country.

Be Your Own Boss (B.Y.O.B.)
The Dufferin Mall Employment Resource Centre is hosting a Speaker's Series on Starting Your Own Business. We are inviting speakers to come in and discuss topics such as: Developing Ideas to Start Your Own Business, How to Write a Business Plan, Where to Find Financing For Your Business, How to Succeed as an Entrepreneur and many more topics. [more]

Acronym Soup

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