BRIDGING THE GAP
Program helps immigrants adjust to culture and find relevant employment
Immigrants hone their skills for Canada,
Ana Gabriela Garcia Murillo was a trilingual, cultured, well-educated woman when she came to Canada seeking better opportunities.
The then-29-year-old Mexico City native had studied in France, lived in India, and had just left a job in her hometown as category manager with one of the largest retail stores in Latin America.
“I knew I wanted to build a life abroad . . . I knew Canada was a good country to build up my life,” says Murillo, 33.
“My boss said I was crazy for leaving and that I didn’t know what it would be like starting everything from scratch. I thought, ‘Well, it’s just another country,’ but it was harder than I thought.”
Once in Canada, Murillo found another retail manager job, but was let go when her contract came up for renewal. The termination was a blow to her confidence; a straight-A student and successful career woman at home, here she felt dejected and lost. “My boss told me he wasn’t expecting to have to teach a manager gram- mar,” she recalls. “That broke my heart.”
That’s when, after a recommendation from a friend, she applied to York University’s bridging program for internationally educated professionals (IEPs). The innovative 18month certificate program helps immigrants trained abroad adjust to Canadian business culture, and find employment that matches their credentials and experience.
“Many of these people have master’s degrees when they apply to the program. Many of them have years of experience and have held good positions in their home country,” says Art Noordeh, the faculty lead for the IEP program. “They tried to get a job in their own field but they’re faced with the challenge of not having Canadian experience. That’s the number one challenge they’re facing.”
That challenge was the catalyst for the York program, which launched as a pilot project in 2009. Four years later, there have been about 100 IEP graduates.
“Big organizations like banks and government organizations recognize to some degree the experience and work [of immigrants]. It is smalland medium-sized companies that have difficulty recognizing their background,” Noordeh says. “By going through our program, to a large extent, we eliminate these challenges.” IEP students choose one of three disciplines — business, human resources or information technology — and take a 10-week pre-qualifying session before starting foundation courses and then specialized skill courses, where students may have the opportunity to complete internships. “The core components of this certificate are three mandatory courses designed to ensure newcomers will learn how to work in Canada,” Noordeh explains. “One is in business communications, one is in Canadian business culture and the third is about business ethics.” Admission to the program isn’t easy. Applicants must be permanent residents, landed immigrants or Canadian citizens, and cannot have been living in Canada for longer than three years. They need to have a minimum of a recognized foreign bachelor’s degree in business, human resources, information technology or a related field, and they need to have had a minimum of three years professional work experience outside of Canada. Plus, a good command of English is required; applicants will need to have achieved a specific level with the Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks. For successful applicants, the program has proven to be a boon. Noordeh says there were 25 graduates in 2012, but 75 students found employment before they even completed their studies. That’s what happened to Murillo, who graduated last fall. “I was still doing the course when I got my job,” she says. “I was about to finish the program in three months.”
She’s now a central buyer for Estée Lauder, living in Whitby, Ont. She credits the IEP program with helping launch her Canadian career. “It helped me gain back my confidence. It was good for networking,” Murillo says.
And those grammar problems are mostly a thing of the past.
“Now I help my colleague to draft her emails. And she’s from here!”