March 29, 2012

Minister Kenney proposes to assess foreign education credentials before skilled workers arrive

Canada is considering making a major change to how foreign skilled workers’ education credentials are assessed. The proposed new requirement would mean that all applicants wanting to immigrate as Federal Skilled Workers would have their foreign education credentials assessed by designated organizations.

This process will help screen out people without proper education levels and help address the problem of immigrants arriving and not being able to work in their field.

This pre-arrival assessment would let applicants know how their credentials compare to Canadian Credentials and will give immigrants a sense of how Canadian employers are likely to value their education.  This will also help foreign skilled workers get a better idea of how their credentials fit into the Canadian labour market and will be able to contribute their full skill set to the economy more quickly.