GETTING TO KNOW WHAT IS AVAILABLE

Your choice of job in Canada may be obvious. If you are a qualified professional you will probably not be considering changing your career. However, even in this case you need to make sure that your British qualifications translate into Canadian equivalents.

If you are considering different options, there are many places from which you can get information about what is available. Firstly, there are quite a few publications which contain advertisements of positions available in Canada for workers from overseas. These include:

• Overseas Jobs Express
• Canada Employment Weekly
• Canada News
• Jobs Overseas
• The Expatriate
• Careers International
• Graduate Posting
• Intel Jobs Extract
• Overseas Employment Newsletter.

You will find further details of these publications and other job sources in Chapter 5.

The other important factor in your choice of job is immigration requirements, as dealt with in Chapter 2.

Holiday work

If you are looking for a holiday job in Canada you will need to obtain a Work Authorisation Approval Letter. An organisation which specialises in helping students to find temporary work and get an authorisation is:

BUNAC

16 Bowling Green Lane

London EC1R OQH

Tel: (020) 7251 3472 Fax: (020) 7251 0215

email: [email protected]

www.bunac.org/uk

They operate a reciprocal work and travel exchange programme called Work Canada. When you join BUNAC (current cost £5) they send you their Job Seeker’s Guide to Canada containing all the information you need about finding a job, including applying for a work permit and making travel arrangements.

BUNAC’s Work Canada programme is available to young people aged between 18 and 35 and offers a chance to live and work in Canada for three months to a year. It is open to both students and non-students.

To qualify as a student you must be:

• a member of BUNAC
• a British or Irish passport holder
• aged between 18 and 30
• resident in the UK
• a full-time student on a degree level course or equivalent

or

• a postgraduate level student at a UK college/university

or

• a gap year student with an unconditional offer of a university/college place.

Current students can spend their summer break in Canada, whilst those completing a final year can stay for up to a year.

Non-students wishing to apply must be:

• a member of BUNAC
• a British passport holder
• aged between 18 and 35
• resident in the UK.

Note that the non-student option can only be used once, whereas students can be part of the programme more than once, provided they are in full-time education between programmes.

The other programme called Gap Canada is for students only and allows for stays of three months right up to a whole gap year. To be eligible you must be:

• aged 18–20
• a British or Irish passport holder
• in possession of a guaranteed university place the following year.

You can find out more about these exciting opportunities for young people at BUNAC’s website www.bunac.org/uk, where you can also request brochures and download application forms.

Further information about temporary and holiday work can be found in various books, including:

• How to Find Temporary Work Abroad
• Working Holidays
• Summer Jobs Abroad
• Summer Jobs USA(includes a section on Canada)
• Planning Your Gap Year.

CASE STUDY

Lucy is overwhelmed

Lucy’s application has been approved. She can go to Canada as soon as she completes the spring term. Suddenly, it all seems a bit too real. After all, although she has her aunt to help her find her way, she is heading off for a foreign country with a few hundred pounds in her pocket and no idea of how she will earn her way.

She has a chat with her BUNAC counsellor, who is able to give her an idea of her options and recommends several books about temporary work abroad. After reading these and hearing the experiences of others who have participated in Work Canada she decides she would quite like to move around and see as much as possible during her year out. After all, others seem to have survived and even enjoyed the experience!

Temporary work

Gaining authorisation for temporary work in Canada is a fairly complicated process, although over 90,000 foreign workers achieve it each year. The main thing to bear in mind is that, with very few exceptions, you must have a valid work permit.

First of all you need a job offer from a Canadian employer, which has been confirmed by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), who must also approve the job being filled by a foreign national. Only at that point can you apply to the Canadian Immigration Commission (CIC) for a temporary work permit.

It is worth noting that there are a few exceptions to this lengthy process. A small number of jobs may be done without a permit. The broad categories are listed below, but you must always check directly with CIC before making any plans or preparations, as inclusion in the list only indicates that the job may be exempt.

Jobs which may be exempt from work permit requirement:

business visitors	foreign representatives
military personnel	on-campus employment
foreign government officers	performing artists
athletes and coaches	news reporters
public speakers	convention organisers
clergy	judges and referees
examiners and evaluators	expert witnesses or investigators
health care students	civil aviation inspectors
accident inspectors	crew members
emergency service providers

Student work programmes

The Canadian government is keen to make Canada attractive to foreign students. To this end, the Off-Campus Work Pilot programme was announced in 2002. This allows foreign students, who are not normally allowed to work without a work permit, to take paid employment for a number of hours per week. If this scheme could work for you, you need to make your application through your post-secondary educational establishment in Canada. You must be registered as a full-time student and have completed at least two consecutive semesters there. Note that successfully obtaining a work permit for off-campus work does not guarantee a job, though. That’s still up to you!

By the way, if you are interested in studying in Canada with a view to going on to gain permanent residence, it is worth noting that many provinces encourage this route.

Exchange visits

This is an option for teachers wishing to take up work for a limited period in Canada. Teachers should contact:

The League for the Exchange of Commonwealth Teachers
7 Lion Yard
Tremadoc Road
Clapham
London SW4 7NQ
Tel: 0870 770 2636 Fax: 0870 770 2637
email: [email protected]

The role of this organisation is to:

• advertise for applicants for exchange
• select suitable candidates through application form and interview
• match the candidates with appropriate qualified overseas teachers
• negotiate exchanges with teachers, schools and employers
• confirm exchanges and provide a detailed service so that good preparatory correspondence takes place about all professional and personal details including accommodation, travel to, from and within, visas, banking, medical care, cultural adjustment
• arrange a pre-exchange briefing conference and orientation conference
• offer full professional, social and pastoral service during exchange
• conduct debriefing and quality control exercises after exchange
• encourage and facilitate longer-term links.

The LECT produces a booklet for UK teachers thinking about exchange to Canada, containing general information and facts. It is available from LECT at the above address.

The Canadian-based association which deals with education exchange visits is:

Society for Educational Visits and Exchanges in Canada
57 Auriga Drive
Nepean, ON K2E 8B2
Tel: (613) 998 3760 Fax: (613) 998 7094
email: [email protected]

Live-in caregivers

The Canadian government now operates a live-in caregiver programme which offers the chance to live and work in Canada temporarily, as well as having the bonus of facilitating permanent immigration should that be your choice.

A live-in caregiver could be providing care in the home for children, the elderly or the disabled. Note that this programme applies only to those giving care in the home. You must meet the following four requirements to qualify for the programme:

• 1.You have completed the equivalent of a Canadian high school education. Roughly, this would probably mean a range of GCSEs and/or a couple of A levels.
• 2.You need to have appropriate training and/or experience. This is defined as six months full-time in a classroom setting or 12 months paid full-time employment. The latter must include at least six months’ continuous employment in an area related to the job you are looking to do as a caregiver. Put more simply, this could be training or experience in, for example, early childhood education or as a nursery nurse, geriatric care, nursing or first aid. Note that you must have gained this experience during the past three years.
• 3.You should possess a good level of fluency in English or French.
• 4.You have a written employment contract which defines your job duties, hours of work, salary and benefits.

The first step in the process requires your prospective employer to submit a request to hire you to the Human Resources Centre Canada (HRCC), who will then confirm the job offer. That’s when you can fill in the application forms to gain your authorisation to work as a live-in caregiver.

After you have completed two years in this capacity you can apply for permanent residence whilst still in Canada. As soon as you are notified of a favourable assessment of your application you can apply for an open work permit which allows you to take any job you wish whilst waiting for your application for permanent residence to complete (this can take some time!).

Nurses

It is worth noting that nurses thinking of migrating to Canada, and in particular Alberta, may be able to get help from the Capital Health Authority (CHA). The regional manager of the CHA recently said, ‘We are looking for both temporary workers who want to work in Alberta and individuals who want to work in the Canadian healthcare field on a permanent basis’. They offer help to those with nursing and diagnostic imaging backgrounds, assisting with relocations and offers. For further information contact [email protected] (registered nurses) or [email protected](diagnostic imaging professionals). You can also visit their website at www.cha.ab.ca