Foreign health-care workers aided in job hunt
Immediate impact expected from new program
It won’t take long before a new pilot project to help foreign-trained medical professionals resume their careers in Niagara begins to have an impact, says Welland Heritage Council and Multicultural Centre executive director Janet Madume.
After receiving $562,675 in federal government funding to launch the Internationally Educated Health Professionals Hub to help medical professionals from other countries resume their professions in health care in Canada, Madume said the Welland Heritage centre is now putting together a team to run the program and facilitate training workshops for both newcomers and prospective employers.
“I think right after we start the workshops we’ll see the impact, for sure,” she said.
“I’m so excited about it.”
She said the four-year pilot project will build on the success of the Niagara Foreign Credential Recognition Program the centre has been running for the past six years, helping to guide newcomers through the process of getting their credentials recognized in Ontario.
The agency is recruiting someone with a background in health care to run the program.
“We’re in the process of gathering all the proposals from people who said they could do this work,” she said. “But we’re not just taking anybody. They have to understand the health system in and out before they can undertake this work.”
Madume said cultural sensitivity training is a “really vital” component of the new program, as well.
“We’re finding many individuals don’t maintain their work. They don’t know the culture in Canada,” she said.
“I’ve seen people getting fired from their workplace. One person, I remember their story, they were told you are moving too slow. How are they supposed to know. People come here from different cultural groups, so why don’t we acquaint
them with the culture here?”
The program also provides information to foreign medical professionals planning to move here before they leave their home countries, as well as providing information to employers interested in hiring foreign trained professionals.
“When you’re taking to employers you always assume they know these things, but they don’t. They don’t know how to hire newcomers,” Madume said.
“They don’t know how to handle it, especially when they’re in the early stages of the immigration process. They’re nervous and rightfully so. The training will definitely have an impact.”
Meanwhile, she said the shortages of medical professionals is getting worse, as they retire and the population grows.
A report released last week by Ontario College of Family Physicians said more than 73,000 Niagara residents do not have a family physician — an increase of about 20,000 since June 2023.