Ontario attempts to break down barriers
Elaine O'Connor
The Ottawa Citizen
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
ADVERTISEMENT
As early as the 1980s, the Ontario government formed the Task Force on Professions to Access and Trades to examine the barriers facing foreign-trained professionals.
At the time, the task force's recommendations would have cost $150 million to implement; nothing was done.
In 1992, the issue was resurrected when the province established the Access to Professions and Trades Unit and professional advocacy groups began to work with community organizations on the issue.
By the mid-1990s, government agencies such as Canadian Heritage and Human Resources Development Canada began funding immigrant community groups.
In 1996, the Toronto community group Skills for Change started lobbying the government for more action.
Since 1995, occupational regulatory bodies have started issuing fact sheets on licensing requirements, exploring alternative assessments and providing professional training.
In 1999, the Ontario Network for Access to Professions and Trades, a coalition of community advocacy groups (now the Ontario Network for Internationally Trained Professionals), was formed.
Together these groups help serve the approximately 100,000 immigrants from 180 countries that come to Ontario each year, of which 72 per cent of those aged 18-64 are skilled and highly educated.
A year later, the province set up an academic credential assessment service called World Education Services to evaluate international diplomas and degrees and provide Canadian equivalents, for a $100 to $200 fee.
In 2002, the provincial government invested $3.6 million in nine bridging programs designed to test and train foreign-trained workers in specific professions to allow them to practise in Ontario, part of a $12-million, three-year commitment made in the 2001 budget.
These include programs for foreign trained health workers, midwives, teachers, financial services, skilled trades, lab technicians, nurses and biotechnologists.
Among the accelerated certification programs are the World Skills Foreign-Trained Teachers Initiative, which helps immigrant teachers become licensed by the Ontario College of Teachers, and the Vitesse biotechnology bridging program, which retrains international science and engineering degree holders.
Through an Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association and Georgian College partnership, machinists can prepare for a certification exam that fast-tracks them through apprenticeship training, while skilled trades workers, including plumbers and carpenters, can gain certification through a Fanshawe College program.
Computer technicians can translate their experience into careers in health or financial informatics through a George Brown College/ Skills for Change program to retrain engineers and programmers.
Several of the bridging programs are targeted to health care professionals.
Algonquin College's foreign-trained nurses program integrates nurses into the system; a medical laboratory technician program provides a route to licensing for foreign-trained technicians or health workers looking for a career change, and the Access and Options for Foreign-Trained Health Care Professionals program helps accredit radiation technologists, lab technicians and respiratory therapists.
Foreign-trained midwives can meet College of Midwives of Ontario licence standards through continuing education bridging programs at Ryerson, Laurentian or McMaster Universities.
The province also funds the Assessment Program for International Medical Graduates bridging program, which allows specialists whose skills are in short supply to undergo a clinical skills assessment and be integrated back into the medical system without requiring they repeat their education from scratch.
Elaine O'Connor
The Ottawa Citizen
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
ADVERTISEMENT
As early as the 1980s, the Ontario government formed the Task Force on Professions to Access and Trades to examine the barriers facing foreign-trained professionals.
At the time, the task force's recommendations would have cost $150 million to implement; nothing was done.
In 1992, the issue was resurrected when the province established the Access to Professions and Trades Unit and professional advocacy groups began to work with community organizations on the issue.
By the mid-1990s, government agencies such as Canadian Heritage and Human Resources Development Canada began funding immigrant community groups.
In 1996, the Toronto community group Skills for Change started lobbying the government for more action.
Since 1995, occupational regulatory bodies have started issuing fact sheets on licensing requirements, exploring alternative assessments and providing professional training.
In 1999, the Ontario Network for Access to Professions and Trades, a coalition of community advocacy groups (now the Ontario Network for Internationally Trained Professionals), was formed.
Together these groups help serve the approximately 100,000 immigrants from 180 countries that come to Ontario each year, of which 72 per cent of those aged 18-64 are skilled and highly educated.
A year later, the province set up an academic credential assessment service called World Education Services to evaluate international diplomas and degrees and provide Canadian equivalents, for a $100 to $200 fee.
In 2002, the provincial government invested $3.6 million in nine bridging programs designed to test and train foreign-trained workers in specific professions to allow them to practise in Ontario, part of a $12-million, three-year commitment made in the 2001 budget.
These include programs for foreign trained health workers, midwives, teachers, financial services, skilled trades, lab technicians, nurses and biotechnologists.
Among the accelerated certification programs are the World Skills Foreign-Trained Teachers Initiative, which helps immigrant teachers become licensed by the Ontario College of Teachers, and the Vitesse biotechnology bridging program, which retrains international science and engineering degree holders.
Through an Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association and Georgian College partnership, machinists can prepare for a certification exam that fast-tracks them through apprenticeship training, while skilled trades workers, including plumbers and carpenters, can gain certification through a Fanshawe College program.
Computer technicians can translate their experience into careers in health or financial informatics through a George Brown College/ Skills for Change program to retrain engineers and programmers.
Several of the bridging programs are targeted to health care professionals.
Algonquin College's foreign-trained nurses program integrates nurses into the system; a medical laboratory technician program provides a route to licensing for foreign-trained technicians or health workers looking for a career change, and the Access and Options for Foreign-Trained Health Care Professionals program helps accredit radiation technologists, lab technicians and respiratory therapists.
Foreign-trained midwives can meet College of Midwives of Ontario licence standards through continuing education bridging programs at Ryerson, Laurentian or McMaster Universities.
The province also funds the Assessment Program for International Medical Graduates bridging program, which allows specialists whose skills are in short supply to undergo a clinical skills assessment and be integrated back into the medical system without requiring they repeat their education from scratch.
