The theme for this year’s Bridging the Gap Conference is helping newcomers to gain work experience in Canada, with the eventual goal of finding work in their existing field, said Carlos Martins, employment consultant at Lutherwood.
“It is something that is important for everybody. It’s a huge deal for newcomers to Canada trying to establish their career here,” said Martins.
As an example, said Martins, some refugees from Syria may have earned a PHd or master’s degree and had excellent jobs before to coming to Canada.
“There are people that used to have a very comfortable life there, but they had to flee from war,” said Martins.
Many newcomers will take on what Martins calls ‘survival jobs’, gaining experience working in Canada until they can find something in their field.
The Bridging the Gap Conference will be held March 1 at the Italian Canadian Club of Guelph.
The event will be split into three sessions — a networking breakfast, a panel discussion on Canadian work experience and an employer connection session with six large employers.
The employers participating int he connection session are Linamar, the City of Guelph, Aerotek, Shopify, ATS Automation and MaxSys Staffing Consulting.
Those six companies are seeking to fill a number of position,s including: manufacturing engineers, construction project coordinators, customer service representatives, IT training specialist, senior electrical engineer, quality inspector and many more. A full list can be found by clicking here.
The companies will be sharing with participants the qualities they are looking for in employees and in turn listening to what the newcomers have to offer.
“The different perspectives these people are bringing from different countries — it’s something unique that the companies can take advantage of,” said Martins. “The companies that realize that potential are hiring newcomers. It’s our job to promote these people to the Canadian companies.”
In a news release, Lutherwood notes that Guelph’s 5.7 per cent unemployment rate in January does not mean everyone who wants to work will find it easy to find a job. The unemployment rates for post secondary-educated newcomers is higher than those of Canadian-born workers.
“I have clients who have been looking for a job in their field for a year, for example,” said Martins.
Some newcomers choose not to take a survival job, instead opting to go back to college or wait for something in their field, said Martins.
“It can be a very challenging situation for some. You have to pay your bills and, depending on your situation, you may have kids,” he said.
