Skills for Change



SfCeNews
October 31, 2003
Volume 4  Issue 10

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...

Annual General Meeting
The Incredible Shrinking Workforce
NPA recipient appointed Minister of Transportation
Unable to get jobs, immigrant couple sue Ottawa
SfC Honoured with Citation for Citizenship
Celebrating Ten Years of Mentoring
ITAB graduation held October 3rd
ONIP-Discussion board for internationally trained teachers

You are cordially invited to join us for our

Annual General Meeting
"New Frontiers in Service Excellence"

at The Columbus Centre
901 Lawrence Avenue West
(just west of Dufferin Street)

Wednesday, November 12, 2003
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Refreshments: 6:00 p.m.
Business: 6:30 p.m.
Program: 7:00 p.m.

RSVP by November 10, 2003
Phone: 416-658-3101 ext. 237
Email: sfc@skillsforchange.org
 

New Pioneers recipient appointed Minister of Transportation

The Honourable Harinder Takhar, a 2001 New Pioneers Awards Entrepreneur award recipient, has become the new Ontario Minister of Transportation.  Recently elected M.P.P. for Mississauga Centre, Mr. Takhar's life in Canada is a true illustration of how immigrants have enriched our communities. He started working on minimum wages as a factory hand, studied to acquire a CMA designation and then worked in several progressive positions before venturing into business for himself.

His volunteer service includes a term as chair of the United Way of Peel. He has also served as the chair, vice-chair and treasurer of the board of directors of the Credit Valley Hospital and as associate director and chief financial officer of the Peel District School Board.

Mr. Takhar and his wife, Balwinder, have lived in Mississauga for 27 years where they have raised two daughters.

Unable to get jobs, immigrant couple sue Ottawa

[Editor's note: The following article was distributed by Canadian Press on October 23, 2003.  Following the article, a Globe and Mail letter to the editor from Peggy Edwards, SfC Executive Director, is reprinted.]

EDMONTON -- A British-trained accountant and his bookkeeper wife have launched a lawsuit against the federal government, alleging they were misled by Canadian immigration officials who assured them they'd have no trouble finding professional jobs to support their family in Canada.

The couple -- Selladurai (Prem) Premakumaran is a native of Sri Lanka, and his wife Nesamalar is from Malaysia -- spent 22 years in Britain before learning that their fluency in English, along with their education and professional credentials, made them eligible to live and work in Canada.

But since their arrival in 1998, neither has been able to use their training.

The formerly middle-class family of six is living in a cramped two-bedroom basement apartment. The parents have had to clean toilets, shovel snow and borrow money from their 15-year-old son to pay the bills.

"When we were thinking of coming to Canada, they said they wanted professional immigrants to help build up your economy," Mr. Premakumaran said in an interview. "But we are wasting our time."

Audrey Macklin, a professor of law at the University of Toronto, calls the phenomenon "brain waste."

"We skim the cream off the top of other countries to get the best we can, and we do very little to ensure their skills are put to good use in Canada," she said. "We end up with the most overqualified cab drivers, pizza deliverymen and caretakers in the world."

In his statement of claim, Mr. Premakumaran alleges the government owes him for "mental agony, financial loss . . . loss of jobs and thereby loss of earnings for the past four years."

The allegations have not been proved, and no statement of defence has been filed.

"What angers me is we are capable people," he said. "We have the credentials. But we can't get jobs.

"We can't give anything to our kids. What [the federal government] has done is shattered our hope and our life. They have to compensate us somehow."

Susan Scarlett, a spokeswoman for the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, would not comment on the lawsuit, which is not scheduled to go to court until 2005. The couple are representing themselves.

When they first arrived, Mr. Premakumaran spent nine months looking for a job in Toronto.

"They said I needed Canadian work experience. To me, if you work in accounting in the U.K., you can do it here."

Eventually, Mr. Premakumaran moved to Edmonton in the hope that he would have more luck. In desperation, he began stocking shelves at Wal-Mart, then later found a job shoveling snow.

Subsequent jobs at a cleaning firm, a hotel, Zellers and a stint on employment insurance have helped the couple get by.

"People are encouraged as immigrants to come to Canada on the strength of their education, experience and job skills," Ms. Macklin said.

"Then they get here and find that these skills have no value to those who would actually employ them."

According to Jane Cullingworth, project co-ordinator of PROMPT, an Ontario-based network of professional immigrant lobbyists, immigrants' expectations of their new lives are often misguided.

"Canada is represented as a very good society where you can make a good living," she said.

"But there really isn't any national strategy that is specifically dedicated to helping skilled immigrants get into the labour market."

Last year, more than half of the 229,058 immigrants admitted into Canada were professional and skilled workers. Of those, more than 77,000 had university degrees, including 17,000 with master's degrees and 3,000 with doctorates.

Mrs. Premakumaran says finding work is a constant battle. "In my culture a nose stud shows prosperity," she said, fingering the gold ball on her right nostril. Interviewers often ask her to remove it.

"I'm surprised that in a country that calls itself multicultural I'm asked to alter my cultural symbols to get a job."


Job action
By PEGGY EDWARDS
Globe and Mail, Saturday, October 25, 2003

Toronto -- Re Unable To Get Jobs, Immigrant Couple Sue Ottawa (Oct. 23): The plight of Selladurai Premakumaran and his wife, Nesamalar, is by no means an isolated incident.

As community agencies helping highly skilled newcomers find full employment using their skills and experience, we are all too familiar with newcomers who feel abandoned here in their attempts to enter the labour force.

With the Premakumarans' bold action, we believe many others will consider legal action rather than the alternative of underemployment or returning to their country of origin.

While some local and regional initiatives are underway to deal with this problem, a coherent national strategy is needed.

Now is the time for all levels of government, professional regulatory bodies, and the corporate sector to collaborate and implement a strategy to prevent this waste of talent.

In particular, Human Resources and Development Canada must adjust its funding policy for needed training programs.

Our agencies are ready and willing to work with government to address this critical need.

SfC Honoured with Citation for Citizenship

On October 16, 2003 Skills for Change was recognized with the 2003 Citation for Citizenship which honours Canadian individuals and organizations  for the outstanding contributions in assisting newcomers to successfully integrate into Canadian society.

Celebrating Ten Years of Mentoring

On October 8, 2003 the Mentoring Program celebrated its Tenth Anniversary and hosted a Mentor Appreciation Evening to say ‘thank you’ to all the volunteers who have made the delivery of this program possible. The Mentoring Program was pleased to welcome over fifty guests, including mentors, friends and supporters, members of the Board of Directors and staff to this event.

Gerald Fitzgerald, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SfC, welcomed the guests to this celebration and thanked the mentors for their commitment to mentoring. Heidi Burgess from the United Way addressed the audience, acknowledging the effectiveness of the Mentoring for Employment Program as a support for internationally-trained professional newcomers in their search for suitable employment. Mundy McLaughlin, Director of Diversity at Ontario Power Generation, spoke about the on-going partnership between OPG and SfC, with their employees actively supporting the program by volunteering as mentors.

Eric Acuna, a new mentor with the program, shared his experiences with the program, first as a mentee and now as a mentor. He talked about the help he had received from his mentor when he first joined the program, and how he is now in a position to give back by mentoring other newcomers. Yatendra Shah, a past mentee, also talked about his experience as a participant of the program. He thanked his mentor, Kaura Kanchan for all the help he had received in his job search process, resulting in successful employment in his field.

The mentors were presented with a gift and a certificate of appreciation in recognition of their contribution as volunteers with the program.

Peggy Edwards, Executive Director of SfC wrapped up the evening by thanking the volunteers for their commitment to mentoring, acknowledging that the Mentoring Program is made possible only because of the volunteers who so generously give of their time and experience to help newcomers in their search for suitable employment.

ITAB Graduation Held October 3rd

On Friday, October 3rd, 14 students graduated from SfC’s Job Preparation for Internationally Trained Accountants & Bookkeepers (ITAB). ITAB provides 26 weeks of computerized accounting, bookkeeping, income tax preparation, office procedures, English language and job search training. Participants obtain Canadian work experience through five weeks of co-op placement. The program is funded by the City of Toronto, Social Services Division.

The following speech was presented by one of the graduates, Mohammed Shameem:

"Invited guests, respected employers, management and staff of Skills for Change and my dear fellow colleagues, a very good morning to you all. Today is an important day that reminds us of an earlier time back home when we graduated from universities, colleges and institutes.

Reaching Canada with years of experience, I found myself in the vacuum of unemployment somewhat like in the middle of the sea. Finally, I learned about Skills for Change and the various courses it provides to suit different individual. I found ITAB to be the most suitable for me.

In addition to upgrading my accounting, language, and job search skills, I learned what real life is all about in Canada:

* What are the Canadian employer expectations and how to talk to them.

* How to interact with people from different corners of the world

* Interview techniques, preparation for professional interviews and video playback which actually reflected who we are and how to improve to be job ready.

* How to turn our manual accounting skills into the computerized accounting environment to meet the Canadian standard.

I know that we all used these skills during our co-op placements and for me it made a difference.

The name "Skills for Change" speaks for itself. The ITAB course turned our weaknesses into strengths. As this program has been a great success, I urge the funders to continue their support in future. For all of us, especially my colleagues, remember this is the just the beginning of our association with Skills for Change and we have a long way to go. As Canada needs more skilled professionals, we all must join our hands together to help each other be better citizens.

Believe in yourself and in your plan, say not- I cannot- but, I can. If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you don't. If you like to win but think you can't, it is almost certain you won't. If you think you'll lose, you've lost. Those who win are those who think they can.

Skills for Change is my secret to success in Canada."

Check out what's new at

Help your clients build their professional network in Canada
Those of us, who provide job search support directly to internationally-trained professionals, know that all our most ardent efforts can not substitute for the loss of professional network, experienced by our clients.

Now your clients can use the online services provided by ONIP.online to build new professional connections. There are two ways to do this:

The Online Mentoring Program is open for internationally-trained professionals living anywhere in Ontario. The program matches professionals new to the country with their colleagues in the same field, with at least 3 years Canadian experience. The mentors work individually with each mentee (client), to help them identify employment options, gain understanding of professional practices in Canada, and build local connections.

To refer your clients to the program, just go to www.onip.ca/mentoring, review the information for service providers, and fill in the online referral form.

Questions? Contact Farida Zuberi, Mentoring Coordinator, e-mail mentoring@onip.ca

The Online Discussion Boards bring together newcomers with similar professional background and create the support network which many newly-arrived international professionals miss so much. Each of our sector-specific discussion boards has a “moderator” – a person with significant experience in the sector - who can answer questions and provide job search and networking advice. All boards can be accessed from www.onip.ca/board.

New Opportunities with Our Sector-specific Discussion Boards
A New Board for Internationally-trained Teachers was started on Monday this week. It will be moderated by David Ditchfield. David has an extensive career in public education in Ontario. He has been a classroom teacher, a school board administrator and a Director with the Ontario Ministry of Education. Currently he is a Manager of e Services for the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario.

How to Use the Boards if I am a Service Provider? Although the discussion boards are intended to help internationally-trained professionals, service providers can also use them as a valuable resource. Here is how:

* Review the boards once in a while to see whether the participants, and the moderator have posted some helpful tips or insights, which you can share with your clients. This is also a quick and practical way to educate yourself about specific professions.

* Post a question to the moderator and/or participants. If you are having difficulties in supporting clients from particular professional backgrounds, you may get tips from the board moderator, or even some of the participants.

Join Us for a Virtual “Brown Bag Lunch” and Tour of ONIP.online
Our monthly online workshops for service providers have become a tradition. The November workshop - A Virtual Tour of ONIP.online” - will take place on Tuesday, November 18, from noon to 1:30 pm.

Plan to have lunch at your desk on Tuesday, Nov. 18, and join Elga Nikolova, Project Coordinator for ONIP.online for a virtual tour of www.onip.ca. Elga will demonstrate how to use the articles, case studies, self-study exercises, tools and services to save time, and serve clients more efficiently.

What do you need to participate in a virtual tour?

* A computer
* Internet connection
* Some quiet, uninterrupted time
* Your lunch or cup of coffee
* Adventurous mood

See you online on November 18!
 

ONIP.online is a project of Skills for Change,
funded by Volunteer@ction.online
and the Ontario Trillium Foundation

To register, call 416 658-3101 ext. 218, or,
register on-line with your Visa or Mastercard

Download application form in pdf format
 

Acronym Soup

Confused? Don't be. Here's a list of our agency acronyms, what they mean and (where applicable) a link to the program web page.
 

CES	Clerical Employment Services
CIS	Cultural Interpreting Service
EAS	Employment Assistance Services
EPRS	Employment for Retail Services
ERC	Employment Resource Centre
FOAP	Finance & Office Assistant Program
IAT	Intake, Assessment and Training
ITAB	Internationally Trained Accountants and Bookkeepers
JSC	Job Search Centre
JSW	Job Search Workshop
LINC	Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada
ONIP	Ontario Network for Internationally-training Professionals Online
NPA	New Pioneers Awards
STIC	Sector Terminology Information & Counselling

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