Ontario, federal government spend $57 million on immigrant training programs

TORONTO – Ontario is spending $35 million to give skilled immigrants a leg up to get the training they need to find work in their fields.

The federal government is also kicking in $22 million to fund 70 existing and new projects that they say will help more than 11,000 immigrants.

The so-called “bridge training” programs provide occupation-specific training, Canadian work experience and help to get the license immigrants need to work in their field.

The projects provide help for information technology, law, health care, engineering and business administration.

The programs are being offered in the Toronto area, York Region, Hamilton, Kitchener Waterloo, London, Niagara, Thunder Bay, North Bay, Kingston and Ottawa.

Both levels of government say helping immigrants integrate quickly into the labour market is important for economic growth.

Nada Khairallah, a physiotherapist from Lebanon, choked up as she spoke of how the program helped her deal with the difficulties she faced in trying to obtain the credentials she needed to work in Canada.

When she arrived in Canada in 2004, she’d had eight years of experience as a physiotherapist working in three different languages: Arabic, French and English.

“I tried to find a job in the field related to physiotherapy, but it was very difficult,” she said. “As a result, I started to volunteer and by January 2005, I managed to work as a physiotherapy assistant.”

Khairallah was dealt another blow when she failed to pass the written component of the physiotherapy national exam. So she enrolled in the bridge training program.

It helped her develop better communications skills and adapt culturally to the Canadian physiotherapy practice, she said. She passed her practical exam a year ago.